Prigozhin says Wagner PMC needs $1 billion a month for offensive in Bakhmut

The founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevhen Prigozhin, has published another video from Bakhmut, where he talks about how much a month-long offensive by his group in the city could cost.

Source. This was reported by the BBC.

Answering the question whether he could not buy the necessary ammunition for the mercenaries himself, the shortage of which mercenaries have been complaining about in the Bakhmut section of the front since the end of December, Prigozhin said that the group needs "approximately 10 thousand tons per month."

"A kilogram of ammunition costs $50, 10 thousand tons – $500 million. If you add in the "high-precision" weapons, tanks, machine guns, missiles and any other crap, you get another $500 million. The total is a billion," Prigozhin shared his arithmetic calculations. – "If a businessman has a billion to buy ammunition, and the state, which has gas, does not give it to him, then this is not business, but state administration. Since I have no political ambitions, please give me the ammunition."

Prigozhin recorded another video from the roof of a nine-story building on Shchedra Street in the eastern part of Bakhmut. The Evangelical Church on Gorky Street is visible behind him, and the Bakhmutka River flows about 700 meters from the recording location.

Meanwhile, British Defense Ministry intelligence reported that over the past four days, Russian mercenaries have managed to take control of most of eastern Bakhmut, while the Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding the west of the city, which is divided by the Bakhmutka River.

According to British military analyst Philip Ingram, Russian losses during the storming of Bakhmut could reach 30,000 people.

Background. As a reminder, US intelligence has reported that Russians will not be able to capture large areas of Ukraine this year.