Wagner leader reverses course on plan to withdraw from Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin says Defence Ministry has pledged to supply all the arms and ammunition necessary to continue campaign.

Yevgeny Prigozhin unloads, rhetorically, on the Russian top brass last Friday

The leader of Russian paramilitary group Wagner has ­announced a reversal of his decision to withdraw from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, after pledges from Russian military officials to provide more ammunition and operational freedom to his units.

The statement on Sunday by Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s founder and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, came a day after he reiterated his plan to withdraw all his troops from the front lines by Wednesday, saying that “after seven months of the Bakhmut meat-grinder, the Wagner Group has lost its combat ­potential”.

He said it had sustained tens of thousands of casualties.

On Sunday, Mr Prigozhin ­announced that the Defence Ministry had pledged to supply Wagner with all the arms and ammunition necessary to continue its campaign in Bakhmut, and said General Sergei Surovikin – removed in January from his post as Russia’s commander in Ukraine – would mediate between Wagner and the ministry.

Wagner has spearheaded Russia’s offensive in Bakhmut, which Ukrainian forces are clinging to after months of brutal combat that has taken a heavy toll on both sides.

Wagner’s manpower relies largely on convicts recruited from Russian prisons. The White House estimated last week that about half the 20,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine since December were from Wagner.

But the campaign in Ukraine, and Mr Prigozhin’s active presence on social media promoting Wagner’s work, have exposed rifts within Russia’s military command, with him openly criticising Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and armed forces chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov.

The new flare-up of tensions within Russia’s military machine follows a spate of drone attacks on Russian soil last week. The strikes, which have mainly targeted infrastructure used to sustain Moscow’s war effort such as trains, airfields and fuel depots, have put the Kremlin on the back foot ahead of what Western analysts say is an imminent Ukrainian offensive.

Authorities in Russian-held Crimea said more than 10 drones attacked the peninsula overnight into Sunday, including the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of the region, said air defence forces and electronic warfare repelled the attack. One drone lost control and crashed in a forest belt, while two others were shot down over the Black Sea. Mr Razvozhayev said there were no reports of damage, including in Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The incidents follow another reported drone attack on Crimea on Saturday.

Kyiv hasn’t claimed responsibility for the attacks, but many experts see the assaults as part of the preparations for a widely ­anticipated Ukrainian offensive.

On Wednesday, two drones crashed into the Kremlin, according to the Russian government, which blamed Kyiv for the attack in the heart of Moscow. The incident sent a glaring signal to Russia about its vulnerability.

The strikes come as Russia is set to mark Victory Day, the ­annual May 9 celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Mr Putin is expected to use the holiday to rally support for the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia continued rocket strikes against Ukraine into Sunday. In the southern Kherson region, authorities said six people had been killed as a result of missile ­attacks. In Mykolaiv, north of Kherson, the regional governor Vitaliy Kim said five ship-launched missiles struck an industrial sector and damaged buildings there.

The Wall Street Journal