Yevgeny Prigozhin with the bodies of some Wagner fighters killed in Bakhmut<\/p>\n
The head of the Wagner mercenary group said Sunday Russia had promised his fighters enough ammunition to stay in Bakhmut, after threatening to pull out in scathing videos.<\/p>\n
Rivalries between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the conventional army came to the surface during the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town, where Wagner is leading the assault.<\/p>\n
It comes as Russia has reported increasing drone strikes and sabotage, amid speculations of an expected spring counteroffensive from Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“Overnight we received a combat order… they promised to give us all the ammunition and armaments we need to continue the operations” in Bakhmut, Prigozhin said.<\/p>\n
His group has been assured “that everything necessary will be provided,” he added.<\/p>\n
On Friday, he threatened to pull out of Bakhmut on May 10, in a series of blistering, heavily bleeped-out videos, blaming Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for “tens of thousands” of Russian casualties.<\/p>\n
“Their unprofessionalism is destroying tens of thousands of Russian guys and that is unforgivable,” he said at the time.<\/p>\n
In one video, Prigozhin was seen showing rows of what he said were dead Wagner fighters.<\/p>\n
“They came here as volunteers and they are dying so you can get fat in your wood-panelled offices,” he said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions to Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.<\/p>\n
Kadyrov, who has ruled Russia’s Muslim-majority republic Chechnya for the last decade-and-a-half, said his men were “ready to move” toward Bakhmut.<\/p>\n
Prigozhin has for months accused the conventional army of refusing to deliver ammunition to his men.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the emotive language used in Friday’s videos and the personal criticism of the leaders of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine were unprecedented.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Prigozhin said Russian General Sergei Surovikin, who is one of Gerasimov’s deputies, would oversee Wagner’s operations.<\/p>\n
“He is the only decorated general that knows how to fight,” Prigozhin said in a fresh dig at Russia’s other army chiefs.<\/p>\n
Surovikin, who has a reputation for ruthlessness praised by Wagner, was named military commander in Ukraine in October.<\/p>\n
Three months later, he was replaced by Gerasimov, whom Prigozhin regularly criticises.<\/p>\n
Russian troops have battled since last summer to capture Bakhmut, whose political importance now surpasses any strategic value.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, visited the eastern front.<\/p>\n
“The enemy is not going to change its plans and is doing everything possible to take control of Bakhmut,” Syrsky said in a statement published on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has been gearing up for a counteroffensive aimed at repelling Russian troops from the territories it gained in the east and in the south.<\/p>\n
Reports of drone strikes and sabotage attempts have multiplied, which experts suggest are part of Ukraine’s preparation for the counteroffensive.<\/p>\n
The strikes precede Russia’s May 9 public holiday, a central event under President Vladimir Putin that celebrates the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Russian army said it repelled 22 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea.<\/p>\n
Shortly before, authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea, surrounded by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, said they downed more than 10 drones over the southern peninsula.<\/p>\n
The Russian security services also said they thwarted a drone attack on an airfield in the Ivanovo region.<\/p>\n
Moscow blamed Ukraine and its “Western minders” for a car bomb that wounded prominent nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed his assistant on Saturday.<\/p>\n
As the counteroffensive looms, Moscow has ordered families with children and elderly to temporarily evacuate a slew of Russian-held areas in southern Ukraine.<\/p>\n
More than 1,500 people have been evacuated, including 632 minors, the governor of the southern Zaporizhzhia region said Sunday.<\/p>\n