Wagner Group Announces It Will Leave Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russian paramilitary outfit the Wagner Group, announced on Friday that his fighters will leave the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on May 10 due to a shortage of ammunition.

In a message posted on the press service of Prigozhin's company Concord, Prigozhin addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

Prigozhin's Wagner Group has been heavily involved in the months-long battle for Bakhmut. Hours earlier, he published a heated video aimed at Shoigu and Gerasimov, blaming them and their failure to provide more ammunition for the deaths of his fighters. On April 29, he threatened to pull his fighters out of the city if the ministry failed to deliver more supplies "immediately."

Prigozhin said that due to a lack of ammunition, the Wagner Group would be handing over its positions in Bakhmut to the Russian defense ministry's units next week.

"On May 10, 2023, we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bakhmut to units of the defense ministry and withdraw the remains of Wagner to logistics camps to lick our wounds," Prigozhin said.

"I am withdrawing Wagner units from Bakhmut, because in the absence of ammunition they are doomed to a senseless death."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that he saw Prigozhin's statement, but "can't comment on it" because it concerns the course of the so-called "special military operation."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's defense ministry via email for comment.

Prigozhin said Friday that the Wagner Group was "supposed to take Bakhmut by May 9, 2023." Russia marks its annual Victory Day on May 9, its commemoration of the defeat of the Nazis in World War II.

The Wagner Group founder said that officials, knowing this, cut him and his fighters off from ammunition supplies on May 1.

"The enemy forces outnumber us five times," said Prigozhin. "Due to the lack of ammunition, our losses are growing exponentially every day."

He challenged Shoigu's claims earlier this week that Russia's armed forces "have already received enough ammunition to inflict effective fire damage on the enemy" by saying that the Wagner Group needs 90 percent more ammunition.

"By not giving us ammunition, you are not depriving us of victory, you are depriving the people of Russia of victory," Prigozhin said.

Prigozhin said he anticipates "criticism" for his decision to pull out of Bakhmut, and challenged those who condemned the move to come to the city and "stand with weapons in your hands instead of our killed comrades."

Update 05/05/23, 7 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

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