Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin on Tuesday accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov of wanting to “destroy” his private army, currently the protagonist of the main advances. Russians in Ukraine.
“This is already an attempt to destroy the Wagnerian private army. It is comparable to a betrayal of the fatherland. Meanwhile, the Wagnerian private army continues to be immersed in the bloody battle for Bakhmut and loses every day hundreds of fighters,” he said. on Telegram. .
Prigozhin noted that Shoigu and Gerasimov forbade giving ammunition to Wagner’s fighters and “helping them with airlift”.
Earlier, the head of the Russian mercenaries claimed that this force could not take Bakhmut for now, because the Ukrainian army constantly sends reserves and has no intention of giving up the city.
The day before, Prigozhin admitted to the “total starvation of ammunition in the ranks of the mercenary detachments fighting in the Donbass and demanded more shells from the Ministry of Defense.
“This is a very serious problem. By the way, there is ammunition in the country,” Prigozhin wrote on his Telegram channel.
Prigozhin, known for his close ties to the Kremlin, admitted that for the moment the Defense has turned a deaf ear to all his requests.
Wagner’s boss has repeatedly accused the Defense of trying to steal his victories, such as in the operation to seize the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut, where this force took several towns and claims that the Russian army does not has not deployed a single unit.
According to the press, Prigozhin stopped recruiting detainees to fight in Ukraine on the orders of the Defense Ministry, which some bloggers said had ordered Wagner to be downplayed in the media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to meet the demand of some MPs to legalize private military companies, but he has ordered to equate the families of mercenaries with those of the military and has mobilized when it comes to receive social subsidies.