Russians sack the Butcher of Mariupol

Wagner chief complains that his fighters lack ammunition in their assault on Bakhmut, the epicentre of the fighting in Ukraine.

The funeral on Sunday of Uliana Troichuk, eight, one of the 23 people killed in the Russian attack on Uman. Picture: Getty Images

Russian sent a hail of missiles across Ukraine early on Monday, a day after the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner warned the expected Ukrainian counter-offensive could turn into a “tragedy” for Russia.

As Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin complained that his fighters lacked ammunition in their drawn-out assault on the symbolic eastern city of Bakhmut, the Russian army on Sunday replaced its highest ranking general in charge of logistics ahead of the expected counter-offensive by Kyiv.

“We have only 10-15 per cent of the shells that we need,” Mr Prigozhin said, blaming the leadership of the Russian army.

Mr Prigozhin said he expected a Ukrainian counterattack in the middle of the month. “This counteroffensive could become a tragedy for our country,” he said.

Russian strikes killed one person and wounded three others in the southern Kherson region on Sunday, but Kyiv reported that most of the missiles launched by Russia across Ukraine on Monday had been shot down.

Moscow recently renewed heavy missile attacks on Ukraine, killing 23 people in the city of Uman on Friday. It launched another volley from about 2.30am on Monday. “Tonight, the enemy carried out another massive air ­attack on Ukraine,” the military administration for Kyiv said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that 18 missiles were launched from planes, with 15 of them ­destroyed. Shelling wounded 25 people in the Dnipropetrovsk ­oblast and damaged dozens of buildings in the city of Pavlohrad. Ukraine’s air defence systems have been bolstered by the ­delivery of Western equipment, including the US Patriot systems received in April.

The latest Russian attacks came as Kyiv prepares for a long-awaited counter-offensive, having vowed to expel Russian forces from territory they seized in the east and south following their February 2022 invasion.

On Sunday, the governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region said Ukraine had shelled a border village, killing four people and wounding two others. A day earlier, a suspected drone hit a fuel depot in the Moscow-annexed Crimea.

For months the Wagner Group has spearheaded the Russian attack on Bakhmut, at the epicentre of fighting. Mr Prigozhin is an ally of President Vladimir Putin but, as head of the private military group, has been involved in a power struggle with Russia’s defence ministry.

After days of rumours, the Russian defence ministry said that Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, under British sanctions for his role in the siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, which Russian troops captured a year ago, had been replaced by Alexei Kuzmenkov from the National Guard.

Nicknamed “the Butcher of Mariupol”, General Mizintsev was appointed to the logistics post days after Mr Putin announced a mobilisation drive last September.

Several influential Russian war correspondents had reported last week that General Mizintsev would likely be removed from his post.

The Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine has revealed major logistical problems in the Russian army, which became especially visible during a chaotic mobilisation drive last year.

AFP