Wagner Group to leave Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, says leader.
The leader stated that Wagner's forces will withdraw from the city on May 10th due to heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies.
Reuters - Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group, said in a sudden announcement on Friday that his forces will withdraw from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which they have been trying to capture.
Prigozhin stated that Wagner's forces will withdraw from the city on May 10th – ending their involvement in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war – due to heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies. He urged Russia's military leaders to deploy regular army troops in their place.
"I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that on May 10, 2023, we are obliged to transfer positions in the Bakhmut settlement to units of the Ministry of Defense and withdraw the remainder of Wagner to logistics camps to lick our wounds," Prigozhin said in a statement.
"I am withdrawing the Wagner units from Bakhmut because, in the absence of ammunition, they are doomed to perish senselessly."
Bakhmut, a city of 70 inhabitants before the start of the war, took on enormous symbolic importance for both sides due to the intensity and duration of the fighting there.
Wagner has been leading Russia's attempt to capture it, and Prigozhin said three weeks ago that his men controlled more than 80% of the city.
But Ukrainian defenders resisted, and Prigozhin has expressed growing anger at what he describes as a lack of support from the Russian military system.
It is unclear whether his latest statement can be considered true, as he has frequently posted impulsive comments in the past. Last week, he retracted a statement he said he made as a "joke."
Earlier on Friday, Prigozhin appeared in a video surrounded by dozens of corpses he said were Wagner's fighters, and was shown shouting and cursing at Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
The announcement comes at a crucial moment in the war, with Ukraine expected to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive soon.
Prigozhin's statements marked the second dramatic episode in the war in the space of three days, after Moscow accused Ukraine of firing drones at the Kremlin in the early hours of Wednesday in an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. Kyiv denied this, and the United States rejected the Kremlin's claims of being behind the incident.
The Kremlin declined to comment on Prigozhin's statement, citing the fact that it related to the course of its "special military operation" in Ukraine.