Yevgeny Prigozhin announces the withdrawal of his Wagner mercenaries from Bakhmut. He apparently does not trust the Russian army to defend the Donbass city. He becomes malicious.
Munich/Bakhmut - There is hardly anything left of this small town with 70,000 inhabitants in the Ukraine war: Bakhmut. Wagner mercenaries and the Russian army now claimed that they had taken the Donbass city.
Wagner mercenaries: Yevgeny Prigozhin announces withdrawal from Bakhmut
At the same time, the head of the Private Army (PMC) Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, reaffirmed this Monday (22 May) that he wanted to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut. And to leave the fighting on the said front line to regular Russian troops - which he immediately mocked.
Known as "Putin's cook": Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
According to Reuters, Prigozhin, also known as "Putin's cook," announced that he would set up a "battalion of generals" if necessary if the Russian army was unable to hold the heavily contested city. According to information from Kyiv, Ukrainian defenders are still holding out in Bakhmut.
Thus, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported ongoing fighting. According to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, the offensive potential of Russian troops there has been "massively weakened," and fighting continues on the outskirts.
Wagner mercenaries: Yevgeny Prigozhin wants to surrender Bakhmut to Russian army
Is the Wagner Group now withdrawing? "Defensive positions have been established on the western edges, and so Wagner will leave Artyomovsk between May 25 and June 1," Reuters quoted Prigozhin, who used the Soviet-era name for Bakhmut, as saying.
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"If the Ministry of Defense's own armed forces are not enough, we have thousands of generals. We just need to assemble a battalion of generals, give them all the weapons, and everything will be fine," Prigozhin reportedly said.
In recent months, Prigozhin has repeatedly publicly criticized the Russian army and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for allegedly lacking support for his people in Ukraine. Prigozhin, for example, recently claimed that the Russian Defense Ministry had not delivered ammunition promised to the Wagner mercenary force to Bakhmut. According to the report, "only ten percent" of the required ammunition for the Ukraine war had arrived, while the Ministry of Defense was "busy with intrigues all the time" and the 72nd brigade of the Russian army allegedly fled the flanks in Bakhmut.
In Ukraine: Tensions between Russian army and Wagner mercenaries
The Ministry of Defense from Moscow had recently admitted that Russian troops had been pushed back at the front near Bakhmut. However, it is not true that the PMC Wagner ammunition had been withheld, it was said from the Russian capital. The relationship is considered tense. (pm)