Russia’s Prigozhin says Wagner troops will withdraw from Bakhmut

The head of the mercenary group leading Russia’s struggling offensive in eastern Ukraine said Friday that his forces will withdraw from the high-profile battle for Bakhmut due to a lack of military support.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s sudden announcement marked the latest dramatic escalation in his feud with Moscow’s military leadership. It followed a furious tirade in which Prigozhin appeared to be surrounded by dead bodies as he blamed defense chiefs for the heavy losses suffered by his Wagner Group fighters.

Hours after his expletive-laden rant, Prigozhin said he would hand over control of the grueling Bakhmut offensive to Russian army forces next week due to a shortage of ammunition supplies.

“I am withdrawing the units of PMC Wagner from Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they are doomed to senseless death,” he said, adding that his troops would withdraw to camps on May 10 to “lick our wounds.”

Visibly angry, Prigozhin said his forces were drastically short of ammunition which had led to a direct increase in casualties. Ukraine chose last month to reinforce its defenses in Bakhmut rather than surrender the city, hoping to inflict crucial losses on Russian forces ahead of a counteroffensive.

Known as “Putin’s chef” for his ties to the Russian leader and past as a Kremlin caterer, Prigozhin made his announcement dressed in full army fatigues with an assault rifle hanging from his shoulder.

The video was accompanied by a statement addressed to the head of the Russian general staff, the defense ministry, and President Vladimir Putin himself.

It was unclear whether it was a serious declaration of intent, given his history of unverified claims and empty threats, but either way it appeared to represent a new stage in an internal battle that threatened to undermine Russian hopes of progress on the battlefield.

The Kremlin said it had seen his announcement but could not comment.

Wagner fighters have led the Russian assault on Bakhmut, a monthslong campaign that has turned into the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. The city has taken on a symbolic value that may outweigh its strategic importance, though Prigozhin has long accused Russian military leaders of ignoring his requests for more ammunition and other means of support.

On Thursday night he posted a graphic video to Telegram apparently showing him stood over the dead bodies of Wagner fighters, angrily asking Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a profanity-laden rant: “Where are the shells?”

“These are Wagner lads who died today. The blood is still fresh,” Prigozhin said, pointing to the corpses around him. “They came here as volunteers and they’re dying so you can get fat in your offices.”

The United States estimates that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since December, half of those from Wagner.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing this week that Wagner’s fighters, many of them ex-convicts, had been thrown into combat without “sufficient combat training, combat leadership or any sense of organizational command and control.”

The furious public feud between military factions will come as the latest public embarrassment to Putin, in a week that saw Moscow accuse the U.S. of masterminding a Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin in a foiled assassination attempt.

Both Kyiv and Washington have denied the claims, which some analysts speculated could be a Russian false flag designed to rally support for the ailing war effort but others said was more likely an exposure of its vulnerabilities.

The incident came ahead of a major Russian holiday marking the defeat of the Nazi Germany in World War II next week. Prigozhin said in his statement that Wagner had planned to capture Bakhmut by May 9 but had been unable to due to a lack of support.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive is believed to be imminent, with Kyiv hoping to drive Russian forces onto the defensive after holding them up and wearing them down in Bakhmut over the winter.

Moscow’s forces are far from establishing full control over Luhansk and Donetsk, the two eastern regions that comprise the vast Donbas industrial heartland Putin claimed to have annexed last year.