Global Courant
The chief of the mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says Russian defense officials have planted explosives on the route of the withdrawal of Wagner fighters from the city of Bakhmut.
The boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has continued his months-long war of words with the leadership of the Russian armed forces by accusing pro-Moscow troops of planting explosives to harm his fighters as they retreated from Bakhmut.
Prigozhin made his claims on Friday as Wagner mercenaries had largely withdrawn from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after months of bloody fighting and a massive death toll. Wagner positions in the devastated city were handed over to the Russian army, he said.
Writing on Telegram, Prigozhin said his men had discovered a dozen locations in rear areas where officials from the Russian Defense Ministry had placed various explosive devices, including hundreds of anti-tank mines.
When asked why the mines had been laid and the explosives placed, Defense Ministry officials indicated it was an order from their superiors, Prigozhin said.
“There was no need to place these charges to deter the enemy as it (the area in question) is in the rear area,” he said.
“Therefore, we can assume that these attacks were intended to meet Wagner’s advancing units,” said Prigozhin.
None of the charges went off and no one was injured, he added
“We assume this was an attempted public flogging.”
The Russian Defense Ministry was not immediately available for comment.
Prigozhin complained for months that his men were not getting enough ammunition from the Russian top man for the attack on Bakhmut and claimed that his fighters were being discriminated against.
The Wagner boss’s often expletive-laden criticism of the Russian military leadership was criticized by another pro-Moscow commander who has fought in Ukraine — possibly a clearly growing rift between the Kremlin’s allied forces in the war.
Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, addressed Prigozhin in a video message, using the diminutive of “Zhenya” and the well-known Russian form of you (“ty”), the Wagner boss as a blogger calling out the all the time.
Chechen special forces fighters, led by Russian State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov, walk near the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, in April 2022 (File: Chingis Kondarov/Reuters)
“You have become a blogger who shouts and shouts to the whole world about all the problems,” said Delimkhanov. “Stop screaming, screaming and screaming,” he said.
“If you do not understand, you can contact us and tell us the place and time, I, we will explain to you what you do not understand,” Delimkhanov said in the message to Prigozhin.
The message then received a swift rebuke from one of Wagner’s senior combatants, Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces officer who served with Russian military intelligence.
“Where does that familiarity come from: who gave you the right to use the address ‘ty’ and ‘Zhenya’?” Utkin said in a message Prigozhin reposted to Telegram.
“Certain citizens should be put up against a wall because of the SHAME we have,” Utkin said.
“We are always ready to talk man to man,” he said.
Chechen leader Kadyrov supported some of Prigozhin’s criticism of the Russian summit last year, but their relations have become distant in recent months.
Kadyrov is also a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has recently refrained from criticizing the Defense Ministry.
(TagsToTranslate)News
