Chris Lange, FISM News
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A threat made by Wagner Group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin to pull his troops out of Bakhmut may have forced Russia’s military commander to finally acquiesce to his ongoing demands for new shipments of weapons and ammunition.
Prigozhin announced on Sunday that he received a document from Russia’s Defense Ministry promising long-awaited weapons and artillery rounds, according to the most recent assessment of the conflict published by the Institute for the Study of War.
“Prigozhin and [Chechen leader Ramzan] Kadyrov likely effectively blackmailed the Russian MoD into allocating resources to Wagner forces in Bakhmut by threatening to pull Kadyrov’s Chechen forces from other parts of the theater to relieve Wagner forces in Bakhmut,” the assessment stated.
The Wagner financier declared on Saturday that he was left with no choice but to pull his troops out of the industrial city in eastern Ukraine after 10 months of one of the bloodiest and most prolonged battles in the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
“As of today, no one has come to replenish ammunition, to provide it in the necessary volume,” Prigozhin said in an audio message posted on his Telegram channel, per Reuters. “There can be no offensive without a counter-battery fight, without defeating the enemy’s means.”
Prigozhin has repeatedly complained that Russian Army General Valery Gerasimov has deliberately withheld weapons and ammunition from Wagner’s offensives in Bakhmut and elsewhere.
“Because I will lead more men to certain death. On the 10th [of May], we will start withdrawing units,” Prigozhin declared last week. He also claimed that his forces have taken 95% of Bakhmut, though Reuters noted that he has “prematurely claimed successes before” and said that it could not verify the claim.
Likewise, the ISW pointed out that Prigozhin has so far not produced any document to back his claim that Russia’s Ministry of Defense had agreed to provide his forces with fresh munitions.
Despite these reports, Ukrainian officials said Monday that Russia has stepped up shelling in what they said is likely an attempt to seize Bakhmut by Tuesday to coincide with Russia’s Victory Day celebration. The annual holiday commemorates the defeat of Nazi forces in Soviet Russia during World War II.
RUSSIA LAUNCHES ANOTHER ROUND OF MISSILE, DRONE STRIKES ACROSS UKRAINE OVERNIGHT
Ukraine’s top military command said its forces destroyed 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia launched at various targets across the country overnight.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that at least five people were wounded in the capital city following a missile strike that damaged a fuel depot, infrastructure facilities, and several other buildings.
Officials in the Black Sea city of Odesa said three people were wounded in 16 rocket strikes, one of which set a food warehouse ablaze.
Overnight missile strikes were also reported in the Kharkiv, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions, with scores of others targeting Ukrainian positions and residential communities across the country.