In the dispute with Moscow over ammunition supplies for the Wagner mercenary force, its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is threatening to withdraw from the heavily contested eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Shortly thereafter, the Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov offered to send his own troop "Akhmat" to Bakhmut if Prigozhin and his people withdrew from the town. "Yes, if the elder brother Prigozhin and "Wagner" leave, then the General Staff will lose an experienced unit and their place could then be replaced by little brother Kadyrov and "Akhmat", Kadyrov wrote on Telegram on Friday. His fighters are ready to go ahead and conquer the city. "It's just a matter of hours."
Prigozhin had announced a withdrawal of his mercenary units next Wednesday. They would have to "lick their wounds". The 61-year-old had cited high losses due to a lack of artillery support from the Russian armed forces as the cause, directly attacking the army leadership.
Russia is also deploying units from Chechnya in the war of aggression against Ukraine. They formally belong to the police and the National Guard, but in fact they mainly follow Kadyrov's command.
Ukrainian army sees no signs of Wagner withdrawal from Bakhmut
At first, the Ukrainian military does not see any signs of an imminent withdrawal of the Wagner mercenaries from Bakhmut. "These statements were made against the backdrop of the fact that he will not be able to fulfill another promise to capture Bakhmut by May 9," a representative of military intelligence, Andriy Chernyak, told the RBK-Ukrayina news agency on Friday. Prigozhin is only trying to shift responsibility to others.
The Ukrainian military does not see a shortage of ammunition among the Russians - contrary to what Prigozhin portrayed. "Today alone, 520 shots were fired from artillery of various types in Bakhmut and its environs," said army spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi. The real background to Prigozhin's statements is the high losses of the mercenary troops of 100 or more dead per day.
According to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar, the Ukrainian armed forces destroyed several ammunition depots of the Wagner troops near Bakhmut with artillery shelling. The information could not be independently verified.
Heavy fighting continues in eastern Ukraine
Russian attackers and Ukrainian defenders again fought heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine on Friday. "The heaviest fighting is raging around Bakhmut and Maryinka," the Ukrainian General Staff reported in its daily situation report. On these two sections of the front alone, almost 30 Russian attacks were repulsed on Friday. At Limansk, too, both sides fought heavy battles.