War in Ukraine: Gruppe Wagner needs 10,000 tons of ammunition in Bachmut

war against Ukraine
Gruppe Wagner needs 10,000 tons of ammunition in Bachmut – a month

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian businessman, is considered a close ally of Vladimir Putin

© Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool EPA via AP/DPA

The Wagner mercenary group is fighting for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. Your boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, now gave a number of how much ammunition his group needs. And that’s just for the fight in Bakhmut.

According to its boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary group Wagner needs 10,000 tons of ammunition per month for the battle for the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. In a video released on Saturday, Prigozhin emphatically demanded the delivery of artillery shells and cartridges. The video allegedly shows him on the roof of a house in the largely destroyed city – about 1.2 kilometers from the administrative center, which is held by Ukrainian troops. Prigozhin announced: “We will win.”

The video showed many destroyed houses and streets – comparatively rare shots from the city, which once had 70,000 inhabitants. Only a few thousand live there today. The Wagner boss assured that no one in Moscow should have concerns that he had political ambitions. Therefore, the required quantities of ammunition should be delivered to him without reservations. Russia’s billionaires are also ready for this expenditure. He put the monthly costs at half a billion US dollars (about 470 million euros).

He wants to be president of Ukraine, Prigozhin sneers

Prigozhin admitted in the video that corruption was widespread in his homeland. But he would “take his own corrupt connections with him to the grave”. Then the 61-year-old lined up for “an important announcement”. Under audible gunfire, he announced that he would stand as a candidate in next year’s presidential election – not in Russia, as was sometimes assumed, but “in Ukraine”. He will compete against incumbent Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his predecessor Petro Poroshenko. The Wagner boss is notorious for making fun of his opponents.

Zelenskyy wants to hold the strategically important city of Bakhmut at all costs. Bachmut has been contested since late summer. The city is the main part of the line of defense between Siversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, established after the Russian conquest of Sieverodonetsk and Lysychansk. If successful, the way to the major cities of Slovjansk and Kramatorsk opened up for the Russian troops. This brought a complete conquest of the Donetsk region closer.

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