Wagner boss prepares deduction
Prigozhin hands over Bakhmut position to Kadyrov
May 6, 2023 at 4:13 p.m
Chechen leader Kadyrov offers to provide a replacement if the Wagner mercenary group withdraws from Bakhmut. Now Wagner boss Prigozhin accepts the transfer offer: in a letter he asks the Kremlin to officially order the handover. The operation should be completed in a few days.
The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says he is making concrete preparations for the imminent withdrawal of his fighters from the front in eastern Ukraine. Prigozhin’s press service told Telegram that he wanted to accept a transfer offer from the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
He has already contacted Kadyrov’s representatives to start moving positions in Bakhmut. “A little more than two square kilometers remain in Bakhmut. Bakhmut will undoubtedly be taken by Akhmad forces,” Prigozhin said, according to the War Monitors Twitter account.
Kadyrov had previously stated that men from his “Achmat” unit could take over the positions of the Wagner mercenaries in the heavily contested Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. More than a year after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, an open power struggle is raging within the Russian military leadership. Prigozhin recently repeatedly complained publicly about an alleged lack of ammunition. On Friday, the 61-year-old then announced that he would withdraw his fighters from Bachmut for this reason.
Now Prigozhin has also published a letter to Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in which he calls on him to issue an order for the positions to be handed over to Kadyrov’s men. This operation should be completed by next Wednesday at midnight, it said. Russia’s army, which has been fighting in the Bakhmut region together with the Wagner troops in extremely costly battles, has not commented on Prigozhin’s threats and accusations.
The Ministry of Defense had already remained silent on the subject on Friday. Instead, the authorities announced – without explicit reference to Prigozhin – that Shoigu had ordered arms deliveries to the combat zone to be kept under “special control”.