USA: The leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary force claimed that his troops were running out of ammunition as they tightened their hold on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and that if they were forced to retreat, the entire front would crumble.
The entire front will collapse, Yevgeny Prigozhin warned in a video released over the weekend, if Wagner withdraws from Bakhmut at this time. "For all military formations defending Russian interests, the situation won't be sweet."
The video was posted on a Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner Group that has been sharing Prigozhin news. Prigozhin's typical press service channel did not release the video.
In Bakhmut, where fighting has gotten more intense over the past week with Russian forces attacking from almost all sides, Prigozhin claimed on Friday that his units had "practically surrounded" the city.
But he lamented on Sunday that only a small portion of the ammunition that Moscow had promised to send to his forces in February had actually arrived.
"For now, we are trying to figure out the reason: is it just ordinary bureaucracy or a betrayal," Prigozhin said on his usual press service Telegram channel.
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Russian defense ministers and top generals are frequently criticized by the mercenary chief. Last month, he charged the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others with "treason" for depriving his militia of ammunition.
Prigozhin stated that his troops were concerned that Moscow intended to use them as potential scapegoats in the event that Russia lost the war in a nearly four-minute video posted on the Wagner Orchestra Telegram channel on Saturday.
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Prigozhin warned that if they turned back, they would be remembered for all time as having played a major role in the war's eventual defeat. The issue with ammunition hunger is exactly this.
Prigozhin said in the video that his soldiers might wonder if the government's top brass or even someone "higher" was "setting them up" for defeat. He appeared to be speaking from a bunker.