In a clip where Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin appears with a group of armed soldiers at his back, he states that they will withdraw from Bachmut on May 10.
– Prigozhin is playing loud when he says he will leave Bachmut in May, says Dara Massicot, Russia expert at the American think tank Rand Corporation.
Prigozhin accuses the military chiefs in Moscow of actively sacrificing his men and letting them die en masse.
Already a few days ago, he announced that he had issued an ultimatum to Moscow: Give us more resources – otherwise we will withdraw.
– Shoigu, Gerasimov! Where’s my damn ammo? he asks angrily in one of the clips, then addresses Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
“He plays loud”
But according to Russia expert Dara Massicot, this could be an aggressive negotiation tactic.
– He plays it loud when he says they will leave Bachmut. He is not in an industry where he can just quit and move on, she says.
As several times before, Prigozhin addresses Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov. He rages that their unwillingness to support the Wagner group has left him “70 percent short” of ammunition.
– They come here as volunteers and are killed so you can sit and get fat in your wood-paneled offices, says Prigozhin in the clip where he walks around among dead bodies.
“The Kremlin can make sure everything disappears”
Furthermore, Massicot believes that President Vladimir Putin will have to step in and mediate between Prigozhin and the Russian commanders.
– This is ongoing and escalating beyond all control. Prigozhin must not forget that he has his assets and his office in Saint Petersburg. When the Kremlin thinks it has gone too far – or become too costly – they can make it all disappear, says Massicot.
The Wagner leader is now also asking Moscow to hand over those positions in the disputed Bakhmut to Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
“I ask you to issue a combat order before 00:00 on May 10 regarding the transfer of the positions of Wagner’s paramilitary units in Bachmut and its periphery to the units of the Akhmat Battalion,” writes Prigozhin in a letter to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.