Tensions spike on Ukraine frontlines as Wagner boss threatens to withdraw

MOSCOW -- The wheels are coming off the Wagner Group's nine-month-long campaign to take Bakhmut, Ukraine, amid a feud with the Russian army.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian mercenary force, on Friday (May 5) threatened to pull his frontline fighters from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine next week, blaming the Russian army for ammo and personnel shortages.

"On May 10, 2023, we will have to hand over our positions in Bakhmut to units of the Defence Ministry and withdraw the remnants of the Wagner PMC [private military company] to rear camps to lick our wounds," Prigozhin said in a written statement on Telegram.

"I will pull out Wagner units from Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they are doomed to a senseless death," he said.

Prigozhin denounced the Russian Defence Ministry for what he described as betrayals of Wagner's war effort in Bakhmut.

In his view, the Russian army repeatedly and deliberately failed to supply Wagner with enough artillery shells or to cover Wagner's flanks.

Instead of sending the promised "tens of thousands" of troops to reinforce Wagner, the army sent mere dozens instead, sometimes hundreds, he added.

In a scathing video Friday, Prigozhin also blamed Russian army chiefs for "tens of thousands" killed and wounded Russian fighters in Ukraine.

He said the massive losses "are on the conscience of those who did not give us ammunition, and that is Defence Minister (Sergei) Shoigu and Chief of General Staff (Valery) Gerasimov".

"For the tens of thousands killed and wounded, they will bear responsibility in front of their mothers and children. I will achieve that."

The Wagner Group has spearheaded the grinding, months-long Russian assault on Bakhmut, almost capturing the city in the longest and bloodiest battle of the campaign.

Even so, Russian forces have died in staggering numbers without being able to expel Ukrainian defenders from the mid-sized city, which had only 71,000 inhabitants before the war.

More than 20,000 Russian troops have died and another 80,000 were wounded in five months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, particularly in Bakhmut, a White House official said earlier on Monday.

Unprecedented criticism

Wagner and the regular Russian army have been rivals for publicity and resources since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Prigozhin's latest denunciation of army brass began in a grisly video he posted on Thursday.

The video posted on Telegram shows rows of what Prigozhin said were dead Wagner fighters, whose deaths he blamed on Shoigu and Gerasimov.

"Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is my [expletive] ammunition?" Prigozhin said in the video.

"They came here as volunteers, and they are dying so you can get fat in your wood-panelled offices," he said, standing by the bodies.

"These guys are from Wagner. They died today. Their blood is still fresh," he said, adding that army chiefs "will go to hell".

"We have an ammunition shortage of 70%," he said in his tirade, in which several expletives were bleeped out.

"You sit in your [expletive] expensive clubs... You think you are the masters of life and you have the right to decide on their lives," he said, pointing at the bodies.

While Prigozhin has made similar threats to pull out in the past, the emotive language used in the video and the scathing personal criticism of the leaders of Russia's campaign in Ukraine were unprecedented.

Prigozhin is closely linked to President Vladimir Putin, and the two started their careers in business and politics in their native St. Petersburg following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Division in Russian ranks

The row within Russian ranks comes amid news of former Russian deputy defence minister Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev joining Wagner as a deputy commander, Russian pro-war social media channels reported on Thursday.

In two videos posted by war correspondent Alexander Simonov on Telegram, Mizintsev -- clad in Wagner-branded combat gear -- was shown visiting a training camp and touring Russian positions in Bakhmut, Reuters reported.

On April 29, Prigozhin's press office said he had offered to take on Mizintsev, the day after his reported sacking by the Russian Defence Ministry only months after his appointment.

The European Union imposed sanctions on Mizintsev in June, calling him the "Butcher of Mariupol" for his role in the devastating siege on the city in the early months of the war last year.

Chaos on Russian soil

Meanwhile, drone attacks and train derailments behind Russian lines have increased in recent days in what observers say could be part of Ukraine's plans for an imminent spring offensive.

In the latest development, a fire broke out at an oil refinery in southern Russia on Friday -- a day after authorities confirmed a drone attack at the same facility.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Friday repeated Russian accusations of US involvement in an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin early Wednesday morning.

During a visit to the Indian state of Goa for a Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) meeting, Lavrov said the attack could not have happened without Washington's awareness.

"We will respond with concrete actions," he said.

Ukraine has denied responsibility, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying, "We do not attack Moscow or Putin."

The United States also rejected any accusation of involvement and accused the Kremlin of "lying" about a supposed US role in the drone attack.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Moscow on Thursday "not to use this alleged attack as an excuse to continue the escalation of the war".