Threatens Bakhmut withdrawal due to a lack of thousands of artillery shells

[Boats]

Russia's Wagner boss escalates rift with Putin's military, threatens Bakhmut withdrawal due to a lack of thousands of artillery shells
By: Alia Shoaib - Business Insider News - 04-30-23
Re: https://www.businessinsider.com/russ...ck-ammo-2023-4

Photo link: https://i.insider.com/63ee1da81d1407...jpeg&auto=webp
Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin attends the funeral of his fighters at the Beloostrovskoye cemetery outside St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 24, 2022. AP Photo

* Yevgeny Prigozhin threatened to withdraw Wagner Group fighters from Bakhmut over shell shortages.

* He issued an ultimatum to Russia's defense minister and gave him 24 hours to respond.

* Prigozhin has previously sparred with Russia's military brass over complaints of a lack of support.

The founder of Russia's paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has threatened to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, escalating his rift with Russia's military leadership.

Prigozhin issued an ultimatum to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over ammunition shortages in an interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov published Saturday.

"Every day, we have stacks of thousands of bodies that we put in coffins and send home," Prigozhin said, per Al Jazeera's translation.

"If the ammunition deficit is not replenished, we are forced – in order not to run like cowardly rats afterward – to either withdraw or die," he said.

Prigozhin warned that if Shoigu does not respond to his requests for more ammunition, Wagner fighters will withdraw from Bakhmut.

"We are patriots, and we will go to Bakhmut while we have the last cartridge, but these cartridges are left not for weeks, but for days," he said according to the video's subtitles, shared by Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's internal affairs minister, on Twitter.

He issued the deadline on April 27 and said the defense minister had 24 hours to reply, which has now passed. It is not clear whether Shoigu responded.

Wagner mercenaries have played a key role in the bloody 10-month battle for the city of Bakhmut, where fighting rages on as Russian forces try to cut off Ukraine's supply lines.

Prigozhin has complained that Wagner receives only 800 of the 4,000 shells per day that it currently requests, according to Washington DC-based think tank, The Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

He said that Wagner actually needed about 80,000 shells per day, which was its shell allowance before apparent Russian Ministry of Defense efforts to reduce Wagner's influence, the ISW said

"Shell Hunger"
Photo link: https://i.insider.com/641d7a42b78341...jpeg&auto=webp

In this handout photo taken from video and released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, a Russian army's howitzer fires at Ukrainian troops at an undisclosed location. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

In recent months Prigozhin has often complained about the lack of ammunition, which he has described as "shell hunger," and accused Russia's defense ministry of deliberately depriving his fighters.

He went as far as sharing a graphic image showing dozens of dead soldiers piled up in eastern Ukraine, which he blamed on the ammunition shortages.

In March, he claimed that the Kremlin was no longer speaking to him after he made complaints.

His latest comments stoke the long-running feud with Russia's regular army leaders over his allegations of lacking support for his fighters and debates over credit for Russian victories in the war.
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Latest News:

* The British Ministry of Defense said Tuesday the rift might result in the Kremlin ditching Wagner.

* Russia is looking for a new military company that it can exert more "control" over, the MOD added.

Russia might replace the Wagner group with another private military company that
it can exert "more control" over, the British Ministry of Defense was tweeted on Tuesday.

In its daily intelligence update, the MoD said that the Kremlin is "seeking to sponsor and develop alternative private military companies (PMCs) to eventually replace the Wagner Group in its significant combat role in Ukraine."

Military leadership "likely wants a replacement PMC that it has more control over," the MoD said. It added that private companies appeal to Russia because they are "less constrained" by poor pay and "inefficiency" that afflict Russia's formal military.

But finding someone to replace Wagner might prove difficult for Russia as the mercenary group is unique in its size and combat power, the update added.

It comes as a very public feud between Russian military leaders and the Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin - appears to have spiraled out of control.

Wagner Group mercenaries have been heavily involved in Russia's attempt to capture the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, located in the Donbas region, deploying tens of thousands of fighters there. (Basically they are hired guns).

Prigozhin has repeatedly accused the Russian army of taking credit for victories won by his fighters in Bakhmut, which has irked its military leaders.

He also accused Russia's Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu of trying to destroy mercenaries in Ukraine by depriving them of ammunition. This led to the Kremlin cutting all ties with the group, Prigozhin said last month.

Russian state media have also been told by the Kremlin to stop promoting Prigozhin and his group, Reuters reported, out of fear that he might want more political power. (Prigozhin assured a Russian interviewer shortly after that he had "zero" political ambitions.) [Yea Right! - take over for Putin would be his new position.]

The update also comes amid reports that Prigozhin is likely to shift his attention away from the war in Ukraine and refocus his attention back to Africa, where his fighters are believed to have a presence in Sudan and Mali, among other countries.

A spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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Personal note: Putin is getting his ass kicked and he wants to blame everyone else
but himself for getting into this mess - in first place! He's old school and a very sick
man. This is his last fling before he bites the bullet. I'm really surprised he hasn't
been taken out - this bullshit he's been doing will be his downfall and a krappy
finish marked on his grave. I'd say not soon enough. How his country can put up with his shit is beyond me.
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Your thoughts on this?
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