Tensions are palpable in the Kremlin. The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner on Tuesday accused his country’s general staff and the Minister of Defense of “treason” for refusing, according to him, to supply equipment to his mercenaries, on the front line in the east of the Ukraine.
These statements by the businessman Evguéni Prigojine mark an escalation in the tensions between his group and the Russian army, in competition on the ground in Ukraine. Tensions have become increasingly visible in recent weeks as Russian forces attempt to seize the city of Bakhmout, with the army and Wagner each claiming advances and sometimes contradicting each other.
“An attempt to destroy Wagner”
“The Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense distribute orders at all costs asking not only not to give ammunition to the paramilitary group Wagner, but also not to help it with air transport”, scolded Yevgeny Prigojine in a voice recording published by his press service on Telegram. “There is a frontal opposition, which is nothing less than an attempt to destroy Wagner. It can be likened to a betrayal of the fatherland, as Wagner fights for Bakhmout, suffering hundreds of casualties every day.”
While Yevgeny Prigozhin has repeatedly criticized the Russian high command in the past, this ad hominem attack on Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, two of Vladimir Putin’s main power figures, is clearly an escalation.
The Russian Defense Ministry responded in the evening with a statement detailing the number of ammunition supplied to “volunteer assault squadrons”, the name the military appears to use for Wagner’s men. “All requests for ammunition for the assault units are met as soon as possible,” assured the ministry, promising new deliveries from Saturday and denouncing as “absolutely false” the reports of a lack in this area.
The ministry once again hailed the “courage” and “abnegation” of the Russian “volunteers” in combat and denounced the “attempts to divide”, which are “counterproductive and which only play in favor of the enemy “.
Reviews just before the anniversary of the start of the war
These tensions also illustrate the difficulties encountered by the Russian forces three days before the anniversary of the start of the offensive, which was supposed to end quickly with the capture of kyiv and is now bogged down. Wagner, who has recruited thousands of prisoners to fight in Ukraine, has led the assault on Bakhmout since the summer and recently captured a series of nearby settlements in an attempt to encircle the city. On Tuesday, Yevgeny Prigojine accused the high command of having even forbidden to deliver to Wagner’s fighters “shovels which allow them to dig trenches”.