2023-05-09 20:14:27
The businessman is in open conflict with the Russian military hierarchy, which he accuses of not providing enough ammunition to his paramilitary group, on the front line in Bakhmout.
The boss of the paramilitary group Wagner on Tuesday (May 9) accused Russian regular army soldiers of fleeing their positions in Bakhmout, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, and accused the state of being unable to defend Russia. Businessman Evguéni Prigojine is in open conflict with the Russian military hierarchy, which he accuses of not providing enough ammunition to his group, on the front line in Bakhmout, and has been criticizing for days.
«Today (Tuesday), one of the units of the Ministry of Defense fled from one of our flanks (…) They left their positions, they all fled“, accused Yevgeny Prigojine, in a video posted on Telegram. “We have a Ministry of Intrigue instead of a Ministry of Defence, so our army scurries away (…) The 72nd Brigade lost three square kilometersof territory, he added. “The fish rots from the head. So if the missions are fixed by assholes, the soldier leaves the trench, because there is no point in dying unnecessarily (…) A soldier should not die because of the stupidity of his leaders“Evguéni Prigojine still dropped.
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These statements came as, at the same time, Vladimir Putin was overseeing a military parade in Moscow commemorating the “victory dayabout Nazi Germany in 1945, supposed to exalt the power of the Russian army. Without mentioning them explicitly, the Russian Ministry of Defense seemed to respond to Yevgeny Prigojine’s accusations by assuring that its troops deployed in Bakhmout continue to “sustain» operations in «containing the enemy actions on the flanks“. This public display of accusations underlines in any case the deep divisions within the Russian forces, at the very moment when those in kyiv say they are preparing to launch a major offensive.
Growing attacks
If he has been criticizing the commanders of the Russian army for months, whom he depicts as incapable, the verbal attacks of Yevgeny Prigojine have recently gone up a notch. In several videos released last week, he rained insults on Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, accusing them of being responsible for the “tens of thousandsof Russian fighters killed or injured in Ukraine.
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On Tuesday, he this time accused the military hierarchy of seeking to “deceive» Vladimir Poutine. «If everything is done to deceive the Commander-in-Chief (Vladimir Putin), then either the Commander-in-Chief will rip your c.. or it will be the Russian people who will be furious if the war is lost“, he launched in his usual flowery language. “There is a crime called “the destruction of the Russian people” (…) And that’s what a small group does“, he still snapped, pointing the finger at the staff. “Why does the state fail to defend the country?“, he launched.
Last week, Wagner’s boss announced that he would withdraw his men from Bakhmout on May 10 if the general staff did not provide him with the ammunition he was asking for. On Sunday, he claimed to have received “the promiseof sufficient deliveries, seeming to rule out any immediate retreat from Bakhmout. On Tuesday, however, he reiterated that he would begin the withdrawal unless sufficient deliveries were made: he claimed that Wagner had only received “than 10%of the ammunition he had requested. “We won’t leave (Bakhmut), we will (stay) for a few more days, we will fight despite everything, we will managehe said, seeming to postpone his ultimatum for a few days.
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