Russian Wagner chief suggests “betrayal” in Bakhmut conflict

• Wagner private army is not receiving the munitions it needs from Moscow.
• Leading to a lack of resources and fears of being set up as scapegoats.
• Ukraine’s troops are conducting a “limited fighting withdrawal” in eastern Bakhmut.

As it attempts to seize control of Bakhmut, the Wagner private army of Russia, according to its commander, is not receiving the munitions it requires from Moscow.

Russian troops, including those from Wagner and regular Russian forces, are attempting to annex the eastern Ukrainian city.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the director of Wagner, has lamented a lack of resources, claiming it may be “regular bureaucracy or a treachery”.

The relationship between Wagner and Moscow appears to be deteriorating.

A significant component of Moscow’s invasion is the Wagner group, which has tens of thousands of soldiers in Ukraine, some of whom were sourced directly from Russian jails.

In a post on Sunday, Mr. Prigozhin stated that agreements had been made on February 22 and that ammunition would be delivered to Bakhmut the following day.

In a further indication of the divide, Mr. Prigozhin claimed on Monday that his envoy was unable to enter the Russian military command headquarters. The location of the corporate headquarters is unknown.

According to Mr. Prigozhin, it followed a letter he sent to Army General Valery Gerasimov, the commander of Russia’s “special military operation,” requesting munitions urgently.

Separately, Mr. Prigozhin stated that his soldiers believed they were being “set up” as scapegoats in the event that Russia lost its battle in Ukraine in a video that was published on Saturday but appeared to have been shot in February.

“If we step back, we will go down in history as the people who took the main step to lose the war,” he said.

“And this is precisely the problem with the shell hunger [ammunition shortage]. This is not my opinion, but that of ordinary fighters…

“What if they [the Russian authorities] want to set us up, saying that we are scoundrels – and that’s why they are not giving us ammunition, not giving us weapons, and not letting us replenish our personnel, including [recruiting] prisoners?”

In Saturday’s video, Mr. Prigozhin said Russia’s front line would collapse without his troops.

“If Wagner PMC [private military company] were to now retreat from Bakhmut, then the entire front – which PMC Wagner today is cementing – would crumble.”

The “entire Ukrainian army… destroying it,” he claimed, was being engaged by Wagner fighters, preventing it from focusing on other areas of the front.

He claimed that the Russian military was being compelled to “catch up in order to salvage face” as the private army was “going forward”.

Mr. Prigozhin complained last month that Valery Gerasimov, the head of the general staff, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu were not providing his troops with ammunition.

Ukraine’s troops were probably conducting a “limited fighting withdrawal” in eastern Bakhmut, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Monday.

But it added Ukraine was “continuing to inflict high casualties” on Russian forces.

According to the ISW, the Russian military used Wagner in its lengthy campaign to take Bakhmut and has subsequently “bolstered Wagner forces in Bakhmut with Russian airborne components and mobilized people”.

But, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that military leaders in his nation were in favour of continuing operations to protect and bolster positions in Bakhmut.

According to a statement from the administration, President Zelenskyy met with Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of the nation’s ground forces, and Valery Zaluzhny, chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.

They spoke “in favor of continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut”.

On Saturday, the deputy mayor of Bakhmut told the media that there was street fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

However Oleksandr Marchenko said Russian troops had not yet gained control.

“They have no goal to save the city… their only goal is killing people and the genocide of the Ukrainian people,” Mr. Marchenko told the Today program.

In the meantime, Russian leaders of the 155th Brigade, who were engaged in combat south of Bakhmut in the village of Vuhledar, rejected orders to attack, according to Ukrainian military officials.

The Ukrainian Azov Regiment’s command center was attacked by Russian forces, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, in the southeast Zaporizhzhia region.

Separately, a year after his soldiers besieged the city, Mr. Shoigu of Moscow visited the occupied city of Mariupol while on a tour to eastern Ukraine.

According to the defense ministry, he was evaluating work done to “restore infrastructure in the Donbas.” Given that Russia is to blame for the destruction, the terms “repair infrastructure in the Donbas” are certain to irritate Ukrainians.

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