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Last week, the power struggle between Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin (61) and the Russian military leadership seemed to escalate. The Wagner boss addressed the public with a sensational video message and attacked the Kremlin leadership head-on.
The reason: Prigozhin’s mercenaries in the hard-fought eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut are out of ammunition. Several thousand Wagner men are said to have died in the battle for the city in recent months.
Threatened to be written off
“Shoigu, Gerasimov, where’s my ammunition?” the mercenary boss shouted in a recent video. The message behind it: not he is responsible for the countless deaths, but the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (67) and Chief of Staff Valeri Gerasimov (67).
Soon after, he threatened to withdraw his entire mercenary force from Bakhmut by May 10 if a shipment of ammunition did not arrive soon from Moscow. He would “inform the commander-in-chief about this problem”, meaning Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin now has freedom of action
The threat apparently worked. Moscow seems to have succumbed. The mercenary boss himself announced the good news on Sunday. “We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as necessary to continue the fight,” he writes on his Telegram channel.
According to Prigozhin, the Ministry of Defense has given him complete freedom to operate in Bakhmut. Prigozhin left open whether he would actually withdraw his mercenaries or not.
“I need to make it clear it’s not his fault”
Originally, Prigozhin wanted to capture the city on “Victory Day”. But nothing comes of that. “The grand goal of putting Putin on a silver platter on May 9 is likely to fail,” security expert Nico Lange told Bild. The city should have been presented to the public as a great success in the conquest and should have played a central role in the speech of President Vladimir Putin (70).
But Prigozhin does not want to be responsible for the failure. “It’s about the question of guilt,” Lange continued. “He must make it clear that the army leaders are to blame and not the Wagner mercenaries.” (ceded)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
