Prigozhin says he will hand over Wagner PMC positions near Bakhmut to Kadyrov's fighters
Wagner's men to leave Bakhmut on May 10 at 00.00
Russian recidivist criminal and founder of the so-called Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin said he would hand over the positions near Bakhmut, which his mercenaries have been storming for more than six months, to the Akhmat battalion led by Ramzan Kadyrov. The businessman's press service released a statement.
"I am already in touch with his representatives to start transferring positions immediately so that on May 10 at 00:00, at the exact moment when we fully exhaust our combat potential, our comrades-in-arms will take our places and continue the assault on the town of Bakhmut," Prigozhin said.
He had previously voiced his intention to leave the positions near Bakhmut, explaining it by "shell hunger" and heavy losses. Prigozhin said that "tens of thousands" of mercenaries were killed and wounded in the war against Ukraine.
The telegram channel of Prigozhin's press service also published a letter to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. In it, the head of the Wagner PMC asks to issue a combat order to transfer the positions of the Wagner PMC to the units of the Akhmat battalion.
Earlier, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov proposed to send fighters from the Akhmat special forces to Wagner's positions.
"If the elder brother Prigozhin and Wagner leave, the General Staff will lose an experienced combat unit, and the younger brother Kadyrov and Akhmat will take its place," Kadyrov wrote.
This week, Prigozhin accused the Russian army leadership of stopping the supply of artillery shells to the Wagner PMC. Because of this, he said, the mercenary units are "doomed to senseless death." The businessman recorded a video in which he stands against the backdrop of dead bodies of soldiers and shouts at Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
"These are the guys of the Wagner PMC who died today. The blood is still fresh. <...> Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is the ammunition?" – Prigozhin shouted on the recording.
The Washington Post, citing leaked Pentagon documents, reported that the Russian Defense Ministry planned to discredit the head of the Wagner PMC. The department planned an information war against Prigozhin, the newspaper writes, but abandoned the idea because it found no allies.
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