The leader of Russia's brutal mercenary force, the Wagner Group, has said his mercenaries are pulling out of the besieged city of Bakhmut next week due to chronic lack of ammunition, blaming the Russian military and its bureaucracy for the shortages. Prior to the withdrawal announcement, former convict and "Putin's chef," Yevgeny Prigozhin issued an angry video tirade against his rivals in the Russian defense ministry earlier today:
"In the video, Prigozhin stands in front of around 30 uniformed bodies lying on the ground. He says they are the bodies of Wagner fighters who died on Thursday alone.
Prigozhin speaks in a furious tone and uses numerous expletives in the video.
'These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,' Prigozhin says, pointing at the bodies. 'The scum that doesn’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.'
He alleged that Russia’s regular army was supposed to protect the flanks as Wagner troops pushed forward but is 'barely holding on to them,' deploying 'tens and rarely hundreds' of troops."
The bitter rivalry with Russian armed forces led to the Kremlin saying that Prigozhin is in danger of assassination, something that would be applauded by both sides in the Ukrainian conflict. If he's not assassinated, he may one day find himself behind bars for overseeing war crimes in Ukraine. Recently, Prigozhin has recruited his "army" from Russian prisons, selecting men with violent records and convictions, promising pardons to those who last 6 months in frontline battle. His fighters have also been deployed to African countries, where they've been accused of committing atrocities against the populations.
(photo: War criminal Prigozhin ranting on video. Reuters)
