Russia’s Wagner leader reverses withdrawal threat from Bakhmut

The leader of Russia’s private mercenary Wagner Group on Sunday appeared to reverse his announcement from last week that his forces would pull out of Bakhmut, a frontline Ukrainian city that has been under assault for months. 

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, released grisly videos last week showing bloodied corpses of his troops and blaming the generals leading the war effort for failing to provide enough ammunition. 

On Sunday, Prigozhin released a statement saying the Defense Ministry had promised support to continue the fight.

“We have been promised as much ammunition and armament as we need to keep going,” he said in an audio statement released on the Telegram messaging app. 

The message came two days after the Wagner Group leader ripped into Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who is overseeing the Ukraine war for Moscow.

“You think that you are the masters of life, and you think that you have a right to master their lives, too,” Prigozhin said, pointing to dead soldiers on the ground behind him. “If you give us the normal ammunition, there will be five times less bodies here.”

The message was seen as possible brinkmanship because Prigozhin has repeatedly criticized the Kremlin military establishment without obvious repercussions — though experts said Prigozhin’s fury over ammunition shortages was likely legitimate. 

“Bodies are piling up. There’s not enough ammunition to go around as Russia prepares for a counteroffensive from Ukraine,” Anna Arutunyan, a fellow at the Wilson Center, told The Hill last week. “Prigozhin is fed up. He’s fed up, and I think he’s reflecting a sense of others who are fed up with this.”

The Russian infighting comes as Ukraine says it is prepared to launch a long-awaited spring counteroffensive. Neither side made significant advances over the winter, with the worst fighting focused on Bakhmut and surrounding towns. 

The White House said last week that Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties since December, including more than 20,000 killed — about half of which were prisoners recruited by Wagner to fight in Bakhmut. 

Moscow rejected those U.S. estimates, claiming the numbers were “plucked from thin air.”