Russia’s Wagner Group says receiving ammunition after threatened Bakhmut retreat
- The mercenary group’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had threatened to withdraw from the Ukrainian city due to a lack of supplies from Moscow
- ‘We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as are needed to continue the fighting,’ Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday
“We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as are needed to continue the fighting,” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on his Telegram channel on Sunday. Protection of the group’s flanks by Russian regulars as it battles through the devastated city has also been guaranteed.
Prigozhin said that coordination between the mercenaries and Russian army units was under the command of General Sergei Surovikin. He described the general as “the only person with a general’s star who understands anything about fighting.”
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin.
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In a major break with Russian leadership, Prigozhin announced in an angry video on Friday that he would pull his fighters from the contested city of Bakhmut after having complained repeatedly over a lack of ammunition from Moscow.
Earlier on Sunday, he said his private forces will continue to fight on behalf of Moscow even after they withdraw from Bakhmut.
“The Wagner fighters will be preserved for the next operations in Russia’s interests,” he was quoted as saying by Russian state media.
It was initially unclear whether Wagner’s positions in Bakhmut will still be taken over by fighters of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov from next Wednesday, as had been reported before Prigozhin announced that Moscow would send the demanded ammunition.
Wagner chief: no further offensive in Bakhmut possible without ammunition
Bakhmut has been under joint attack by the Russian army and Wagner’s troops for months. The city had a pre-war population of 70,000 and is now a mostly destroyed wasteland after months of gruelling fighting.
Russian state news agency TASS, quoting Prigozhin’s press office, said Russian forces controlled about 95 per cent of Bakhmut.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s military leadership on Sunday said that the situation on the Ukrainian eastern front, including in Bakhmut, is “tense but under control,” according to an assessment by the commander-in-chief in charge of the area, Olexandr Syrskyi.
The general had taken stock of the situation in the operational areas the previous day and discussed further steps with the responsible commanders, it said. The main focus was on the defence of Bakhmut and the plan to “inflict maximum damage” on Wagner units.
According to Syrskyi’s assessment, Russian military forces have increased the intensity of heavy weapons fire in recent days, deployed more modern equipment and regrouped their troops. “This indicates that the enemy will not change its plans and is doing everything to gain control of Bakhmut and continue its offensive,” the commander of Ukraine’s Army Group East was quoted as saying.
A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s troops fighting on the southern front line said the Russian military was using ever-changing tactics to find ways to bypass Ukrainian air defences.
Apart from high-precision weapons, Russian forces were “using everything at their disposal to do so,” Natalya Humenyuk told national television on Sunday.
The Russian military was searching for the locations of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defences in various missions, she said. In addition, the frequent air attacks and the activities of the Russian air force increase the psychological pressure on the Ukrainian population, the spokeswoman added.
Ukraine’s air defences are now equipped with a number of state-of-the-art Western weapon systems, including the US-made Patriot system and the German Iris-T.
Ukraine war: Wagner threatens Bakhmut withdrawal as drone attack targets Crimea
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) tweeted on Sunday that Russia is facing a labour shortage that will “likely lead to a reduction in the potential growth of the Russian economy and risks stoking inflation.”
Over the past three years, the Russian population has reportedly declined by 2 million more people than expected, the ministry said in its regular update on the war in Ukraine.
“Mobilisation, historically high emigration, and an ageing and shrinking population is limiting the labour supply,” it said.
Up to 1.3 million people left in 2022, including many younger and well-educated people in high-value industries. The Russian Ministry of Communications estimates that 100,000 IT workers, or 10 per cent of the workforce in the sector, left in 2022 and did not return, according to the British MoD.
