Wagner boss Prigozhin slams Russian officials - Fish rots from its head - Rout
Moscow acknowledged that its forces had fallen back north of Bakhmut, a retreat the head of Russia’s Wagner Group called a “rout”. A coordinated push by Kyiv to encircle Russian forces in Bakhmut is underway. The table is being set for a stunning Russian defeat.
Ukrainian military commander Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, head of ground forces, said that Russian forces in Bakhmut had been pushed back by up to 2km in some areas, after counter offensives. The comments came as Ukrainian forces claim to have routed a brigade of thousands of troops in Bakhmut.
”It was the competent conduct of the defensive operation that exhausted the trained forces of the ‘Wagner’ PvC and forced them to be replaced in certain directions by less well-prepared units of the Russian regular troops, which were defeated and left.” This confirms the chief of Russia’s Wagner Group comments yesterday. “Today, everything is being done so that the front line crumbles. Today, one of the defence ministry’s units fled one of our flanks, abandoning their positions. Everyone fled,”
Yevgeny Prigozhin said he and his men would be regarded as traitors if they abandoned their positions in the city of Bakhmut. For the second time in a matter of days he said his forces would leave Bakhmut if they did not receive the ammunition they needed. "A combat order came yesterday which clearly stated that if we leave our positions (in Bakhmut), it will be regarded as treason against the motherland. That was the message to us," Prigozhin said. He referred cryptically to a 'grandfather figure'. Many suspect that is his boss Putin.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said that he had received a promise of more ammunition from the Russian army following his unprecedented public threat to pull his forces from Bakhmut due to a lack of ammunition. Prigozhin's blistering attack using crude and emotional language was heard by Putin. Prigozhin said that all decisions regarding Wagner's operation would now be taken by General Surovikin. Surovikin, an army veteran with a brutal reputation was replaced by Valery Gerasimov, who is regularly criticized by Prigozhin.
“On May 10, 2023 we will have to hand over our positions in Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw Wagner units to rear camps to lick our wounds,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
US National Security said that more than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and another 80,000 wounded in fighting in Ukraine since December. Half of the dead were from the Wagner group. Last week Prigozhin told a Russian pro-war blogger that Wagner fighters in Bakhmut were down to their last days of supplies of bullets.
