Battle of Bakhmut
Kadyrov praises his fighters as Wagner substitutes
5/5/2023 9:49 p.m
In an online video, Wagner boss Prigozhin threatens to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut. Chechen leader Kadyrov offers to fill the gap. In Kiev, meanwhile, there are no signs that the Russians will soon be withdrawing from the embattled city.
Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov has offered to send his own unit “Achmat” to the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut if Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his men withdraw from the town. “Yes, if elder brother Prigozhin and ‘Wagner’ go, then the General Staff will lose an experienced unit, and little brother Kadyrov and ‘Akhmat’ could take their place,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram. His fighters are ready to go ahead and conquer the city. “It’s just a matter of hours.”
Prigozhin had previously announced that his mercenary units would be withdrawn next Wednesday. They would have to “lick their wounds”. The 61-year-old cited high losses due to a lack of artillery support by the Russian armed forces as the cause and attacked the army leadership directly.
Despite Prigozhin’s announcement, there are no signs in Kiev that the Russian mercenaries will soon be withdrawing. “These statements were made against the background that he will not be able to fulfill another promise to capture Bakhmut by May 9,” military intelligence representative Andriy Chernyak told the RBK-Ukrayina news agency. Prigozhin is only trying to shift the responsibility onto others.
Ukrainians don’t believe in ammunition shortages
Contrary to what Prigozhin portrayed, the Ukrainian military sees no shortage of ammunition among the Russians. “Today alone there were 520 artillery fires of different types in Bakhmut and the surrounding area,” said army spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyy. The actual background to Prigozhin’s statements is the high losses of 100 and more dead per day by the mercenary troops.
The area around the town of Bakhmut has been heavily contested since October. With heavy losses, the Wagner fighters pushed the Ukrainians back further and further, but were not able to completely conquer Bachmut. Withdrawing from the now completely destroyed city in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk would not be a particularly significant defeat for Moscow from a military-strategic point of view – but symbolically all the more so.
It is not known how many Wagner mercenaries are currently fighting in Bachmut. According to Russian military bloggers, however, they are said to be operating almost alone in the city itself, with regular soldiers only supporting them on the flanks. According to Ukrainian information, Russian airborne troops and a motorized rifle brigade are also stationed near Bakhmut.