UKRAINE-RUSSIA-BAKHMUTH – TELAM Agency
The leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner today requested authorization from the Moscow army to cede its positions in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting in recent months, to the troops of the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadirov.
“I ask you to issue a combat order before midnight on May 10, on the handover of the positions of the Wagner group to the units of the Akhmat battalion in and around the town of Bakhmut,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter published by his press service and addressed to the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu.
Wagner’s boss said he was making the request because of an “ammunition shortage,” the AFP news agency reported.
Yesterday, Prigozhin threatened to withdraw from Bakhmut and accused the Russian General Staff of not sending him enough ammunition
Kadirov said that if Wagner’s troops withdrew, his men were ready to occupy the Russian positions there.
“Our fighters are ready to advance and occupy the city. This would take a few hours,” said the Chechen leader.
Prigozhin thanked Kadirov for his proposal and assured that the Chechen troops “will certainly take” Bakhmut.
Prigozhin has accused the Russian army for months of not supplying him with enough ammunition for his fighters to achieve a victory at Bakhmut that would dwarf regular troops.
That town in eastern Ukraine has concentrated the fighting for several months. Wagner’s militias took many sectors, without managing to seize the entire city.
Source: Ambito
