Indecently Warmongering Lunacy

"My lads will not suffer useless and unjustified losses in Bakhmut without ammunition."

"If, because of your petty jealousy, you do not want to give the Russian people the victory of taking Bakhmut, that's your [Russian military bureaucrats] problem."

"Because of the lack of ammunition, our losses are increasing exponentially every day."

"On May 10, 2023, we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw the remains of Wagner to logistics camps to lick our wounds."

"Shoigu! [Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu] ... Gerasimov! [Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov] ... Where is the ***** ammunition?"

"[Shoigu and Gerasimov must bear the responsibility for] tens of thousands of Wagner dead and injured."

"We’ve taken 95% of Bakhmut. For this last 5%, the ‘Red Army’ [the Russian Armed Forces] are not playing any role."

"Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is the... ammunition?... They came here as volunteers and die for you to fatten yourselves in your mahogany offices."

"There will be no more meat grinder because there’s nothing left to grind the meat with." 

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, video ranting threat

Yevgeny Prigozhin announcing his intent to withdraw from Bakhmut   Concord Press Service

 

A lack of weaponry and of ammunition. This is what the head of the mercenary Russian Wagner Group bemoans and has been demanding for months, while his men in their thousands surround and besiege a relatively much smaller Ukrainian military group defending Bakhmut. The small industrial mining city has become a symbol of Ukrainian perseverance and courage as opposed to Russian incompetence and desperation. An estimated 20,000 Russian troops, both conventional military but mostly mercenary, have died in their offensive efforts to take the city.

 

Although Wagner's head warned he was preparing to pull his mercenaries out of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine authorities the Wagner fighters were reinforcing positions in a plan to seize the battered city in advance of the Russian anniversary of its victory against Nazi Germany during World War II. Because his men have been starved of the ammunition they need to succeed in totally routing the Ukrainian military still holding on to part of the city; according to Prigozhin the Russian army would take their place by next Wednesday.

 

Prigozhin's propagandists produced a video to accompany a written withdrawal announcement addressed to the head of the general staff, the defence minister and Russian supreme leader President Vladimir Putin. Dripping with blame and drama, charging 'bureaucrats' of holding back desperately needed supplies, Prigozhin staged himself standing in a field of Wagner corpses, bitterly emphasizing his loss and the Russian military betrayal of the nobility of the unrecognized Wagner sacrifice.

The threatening appeal had its response when state-operated RIA news agency reported the instructions issued to a deputy by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to ensure the Wagner troops had all the weapons required in the field of combat. Russia views the taking of Bakhmut -- a goal that has eluded Moscow for six months of brutal combat -- as the first in a succession of steps to claiming other cities in the Donbas. The grinding warfare has exacted an enormous toll on the lives of both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, Russia losing the most.

Ukrainian troops, though hard pressed in recent weeks, continue to cling to the city with the intention of inflicting as many losses for Russia as possible, ahead of Kyiv's plans to launch its anticipated spring offensive against the invading forces along the 1,000-km front line. According to a senior Ukrainian official, Russia was in the process of ordering Wagner fighters from along the front line to Bakhmut to conclude its capture by Victory Day.

"We are now seeing them pulling [fighters] from the entire offensive line where the Wagner ftghters were, they are pulling [them] to the Bakhmut direction", stated Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar on Ukrainian television. Former Russian deputy defence minister Col.Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev joined Wagner as a deputy commander, reported Russian pro-war social media channels. 

It is anticipated that the Ukrainian counterattack is likely to encompass the Zaporizhzhia region where some 80 percent is held by Moscow. Moscow issued a directive more recently that ordered residents of a number of towns to evacuate immediately in the region, creating yet another situation of chaotic traffic of desperate people. Russian news agencies reported a second drone attack in as many days n the Ilsky oil refinery in the south on Friday close inside the Russian border.

"Overnight we received a combat order, for the first time in all this time. We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue further operations."

"We have been promised that everything needed to prevent the enemy from cutting us off [from supplies] will be deployed on the flank.”\"

"[Russia’s defence ministry assigned Gen Sergei Surovikin to work alongside Wagner.] This is the only man with the star of an army general who knows how to fight."

Yevgeny Prizozhin, change of plan to depart Bakhmut

Fighting has raged in Bakhmut for months, but the city has not yet fallen to Russian troops.  Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images