War in Ukraine: Moscow “promised” ammunition for Bakhmut, says Wagner chief

Paramilitary group leader Wagner said Sunday he received a “promise” from the Russian army to get more ammunition and weapons after threatening to withdraw from the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut due to a lack of additional support.

“Last night we received a combat order (…). We are promised to be provided with all the ammunition and weapons necessary to continue operations,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message published by his press service.

“We are sworn that our flanks (around Bakhmut — ed.) will be provided with everything necessary so that the enemy does not pierce them, and we are told that we can act in Artemovsk (the Soviet name for Bakhmut) as we see fit” . he added.

He also claims that from now on, General Sergei Surovikin will make “all decisions relating to Wagner’s military operations, in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Defense.” “He is the only person with general stars who knows how to fight,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin.

General Surovikin was appointed commander of Russian forces in Ukraine in October last year, much to the delight of Yevgeny Prigozhin, shortly before the withdrawal of the Russian army from Kherson in the face of the Ukrainian offensive. But then Sergei Surovikin was replaced in January by General Valeri Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the armies, who was criticized quite regularly by Wagner’s superiors.

On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his troops next week from the city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, accusing the Russian General Staff of depriving him of ammunition. Wagner’s boss has been accusing the Russian general staff for months now of not supplying his men with enough ammunition to deprive them of a victory at Bakhmut that would have dwarfed the regular army. On Saturday, he also asked the Russian defense minister to transfer Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s troops to his position in Bakhmut.