Yevgeny Prigozhin, boss of the Russian mercenary company Wagner, lamented the lack of ammunition on Friday and directly criticized the Russian Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
“These are the boys who died today, the blood is still fresh”says Prigozhin in a message that was videotaped and broadcast over the digital messaging network Telegram.
The images show corpses of alleged fighters hired by the Wagner firm on Ukrainian territory.
Prigozhin adds that the casualty rate would have been lower if the private company had received the “right amount” of ammunition for fighting on Ukrainian territory invaded by Russia.
According to the Russian oligarch, the combat units of the Wagner Company have only 30% of the necessary ammunition, which the Russian Defense Minister, Serguei Shoigu, and the Chief of the General Staff of Russia, Valeri Guerasimov, directly blame.
“She [mercenários] came here as volunteers and dies getting fat in your offices”said Progozhin insultingly to Shoigu and Guerasimov.
The fighters hired by the Russian private company form the Russian strike force, which has been in the western Ukraine city of Bakhmut (Artiomovsk, in Russian) since late last year.
On Thursday, Prigozhin said that in “just one day of combat, 116 fighters” of the Wagner Company died due to a shortage of ammunition, which he considered “extremely serious”.
It is not the first time that Wagner has criticized the Ministry of Defense for problems with the supply of war materials, especially ammunition.
Last March, Prigozhin even threatened to withdraw Bakhmut’s detachments.
“If the private military company leaves Wagner Bakhmut, the front will collapse”said the businessman in another message broadcast on the YouTube social network.
Source: DN
