“stones in the way”
Prigozhin complains of harassment by military leaders
2/16/2023, 1:19 p.m
Wagner boss Prigoshin considers it impossible to take Bakhmut in the near future and justifies this with the “monstrous bureaucracy” to which his mercenary troupe is at the mercy. The fact that he is no longer allowed to recruit prisoners leads to “bloodletting” – with negative consequences for the offensive.
The head of the Russian Wagner mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says he does not expect the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been heavily fought over for months, to be conquered until “March or April” and blames the “monstrous military bureaucracy” for the slow progress. “I think it will be in March or April. In order to capture Bakhmut, you have to cut off all supply routes,” Prigozhin said in a video published overnight on the Telegram online service.
The Wagner boss said the slow progress in the battle for the city was due to bureaucratic obstacles. “I think we would have won Bakhmut if it weren’t for this monstrous military bureaucracy and if there weren’t obstacles thrown in our way every day,” Prigozhin said. Wagner fighters have been leading the offensive against Bachmut for months, but have suffered heavy casualties. “Other units don’t show the activity they do [zeigen] should,” said Prigozhin. “If there were three to five groups like Wagner, we would already be dipping our feet in the Dnipro River.”
He also complained that it was a “bloodletting” for the Wagner group that they could no longer recruit prisoners who would go to the front in exchange for an amnesty. “Eventually the number of units will decrease and, as a consequence, the volume of tasks that we want to carry out.” In a month-long campaign, Wagner had recruited some 40,000 convicts from Russian prisons to fight in Ukraine. Prigozhin said last week that this form of recruitment had been discontinued.
In the Kremlin supposedly a stimulus figure
According to observers, the move was taken to address growing criticism of this form of fighter recruitment. Some also consider it proof that Prigozhin has fallen out of favor with the Russian security authorities. Prigozhin has long been an ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, but has often spoken disparagingly of the military leadership throughout the war.
After years of denial, he only admitted last fall that he had founded the Wagner mercenary group. Their fighters have also been sighted in the Middle East and Africa. Prigozhin also claimed involvement in Russian meddling in US elections and having set up a “troll factory” to run propaganda and disinformation campaigns online.