Russian troops abandon positions near Bakhmut, says Wagner bossYevgeny Prigozhin launches another scathing attack on Russian defence chiefs, saying soldiers are being given ‘criminal’ orders.The chief of Russia’s Wagner Group has accused a Russian military unit of fleeing positions near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, in his latest scathing attack against Russia’s military leadership.
“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,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had earlier threatened to pull his fighters out of Bakhmut on May 10 if he does not receive badly needed ammunition.
“A soldier shouldn’t die because of his leaders’ absolute stupidity,” he said. “The commands they receive from the top are absolutely criminal.”In his messages shared on Russia’s Victory Day – the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II – Prigozhin said that he had received a “combat order” on Monday, saying if Wagner abandoned positions, it would be regarded as “treason against the motherland”.
“That was the message to us,” Prigozhin said.
“[But] if there is no ammunition, then we will leave our positions and be the ones asking who is really betraying the motherland. Apparently, the one [betraying the motherland] is the person who signed [the order to supply too little ammunition],” he added, saying he would keep pleading for more ammunition for a “few more days”.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow had failed to capture Bakhmut despite a self-imposed deadline of May 9 to give Putin a battlefield trophy in time for Russia’s Victory Day celebrations.
Moscow regards capturing Bakhmut as a stepping stone towards taking other cities in Ukraine’s industrial east, but Western observers say Bakhmut’s fall would not represent a major win for Moscow or change the battlefield.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/9/russian-troops-abandon-positions-near-bakhmut-says-wagner-boss
