Leader of the so-called Wagner's Private Military Company Yevgeny Prigozhin faced up against the Kremlin in an open confrontation over the "artificial artillery ammunition hunger" created by russian state authorities in the ranks of his mercenary group. According to Prigozhin, the "Wagner's PMC" receives only 10% of the amount of artillery shells needed for military operations in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, one of the most difficult operational directions in Ukraine.
The leader of the mercenary company, composed mostly of former convicts released from prisons to the battlegrounds, says the lack of ammunition was due to Moscow being "jealous" over the "success" of the PMC in Ukraine. He issued a formal letter of appeal, de facto an ultimatum to the russian ministry of defense and Putin personally, and announced he would withdraw his mercenaries from Bakmut starting May 10. He asked russian commanders to sign an order to the regular army to replace the "Wagnerites" on their lines. The video statement follows below:
Read more: Fierce Battles near Bakhmut: Ukrainian Soldiers Defended an Observation Post Against Five Times as Many Wagner Mercenaries (Video)
Wagner Group head Prigozhin announced the withdrawal of all his troops from Bakhmut on 10 May 2023, criticizing Russian leadership for the artificial lack of shells. pic.twitter.com/ELCLdBOQL6https://t.co/s7I2Cppkho — Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) May 5, 2023
We should point out that according to Prigozhin, he received not a single official document from the russian ministry of defense, this fact indicates that the PMC Wagner doesn't exist in the russian bureaucracy on an official level. He also said there was no ammunition left, yet they will hold their positions in the city until May 10.
The ending is especially interesting: the small but fully operational russian private army would retreat to the rear camps to "lick its wounds" and wait until they are needed "by the russian nation" because the current russian authority proved incapable.
The text version of the statement was published a while later, it was made up of more careful words, for instance, there wasn't such a powerful assault on the Kremlin. But it mentions the inflated number of russian servicemen in the ranks of regular forces on paper which in reality turns out to be "dozens, rarely hundreds of soldiers" instead of thousands. On the part of Defense Express, that can be explained by russian officers trying to conceal the losses, including the middle-rank commanders who try to steal money from the bank cards of deceased troops.
Then, there are questions about the performance of the PMC chief. First of all, Prigozhin obviously tries to make such statements for his own career growth, we have already seen him issue such accusations once in a while. Secondly, this statement however will need a response from the Kremlin, otherwise, it may cause an avalanche effect in other units, and the Ukrainian frontline may become way too similar to the situation in russia in 1917 between the two revolutions. This possibility gives grounds to believe this is more than just a disinformation campaign.
The reason for the outbreak also looks suspiciously artificial. Ukrainian military sources don't report any ammunition shortage among the russians in the Bakhmut direction. And the scale of Prigozhin's ultimatum looks too big for an appeal for ammunition. Even if they got the artillery shells (despite the "Wagnerites" having a higher demand than other russian units due to their continuous offensive operations), it wouldn't change much.
There is a possible scenario where Putin uses this statement as a justification to replace the entire establishment in the ministry of defense. Against the background of drone attacks on the Kremlin, explosions in the russian rear, and lack of any significant success on the frontlines, the russian president needs a scapegoat to blame for all these failures.
At the same time, we should not forget that Prigozhin's statement is still directly connected with his own career and the plans of his sponsors that may be scheming against the current government of the russian federation.
Read more: Wagner Mercenaries Got a T-90M to Use it as a Howitzer, Wrapped the Sight With Wire and Don't Apply Internal Comms
