The Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, today expressed his willingness to replace the mercenaries of the Wagner Group in the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut with his special units, after his boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced his early withdrawal due to lack of ammunition.
"If the older brother Prigozhin and Wagner leave, then the General Staff loses an experienced unit, but the younger brother Kadyorv and (the special unit) Akhmat will come in their place," Kadyrov said on his Telegram channel.
Kadyrov stressed that the displacement "is a matter of a few hours" and that his soldiers "are already prepared to advance and take the city."
Of course, he qualified that he hopes to have the firmness of the high command and Russian soldiers when it comes to complying with the orders of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, after Prigozhin denounced the lack of support from Moscow.
He recalled that Chechen units had already fought the Wagnerites in places such as Popasna, Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, all localities in the Lugansk region.
"Together we fulfill the sacred duty before the homeland without divisions by ethnicity or faith. The interests of the State must be in the first place," he said.
He criticized the fact that the Ministry of Defense neither commented nor was willing to meet with Prigozhin, whom he praised for his "invaluable contribution" to the liberation of Donbas.
The Wagner Group announced today that it will withdraw its mercenaries from Bakhmut on May 10 amid open warfare with the Russian Defense Ministry over ammunition shortages.
"I withdraw Wagner's units from Bakhmut because they are condemned to a senseless death due to the lack of ammunition," said Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's boss, in a statement addressed, among others, to the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, and to the Russian people. .
Bakhmut, the scene since August 2022 of the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, is currently the main objective of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.
By now, Prigozhin's recruited mercenaries and ex-convicts have taken virtually the entire city, where the Ukrainian defenders would control only 2.5 square kilometres.
Prigozhin accuses the "military bureaucrats" of preventing him from taking Bakhmut coinciding with the "sacrosanct" Victory Day over Nazi Germany (May 9), by assuring that his men have only 10% of the ammunition they need.
For this reason, he asks Gerasimov to sign an order with the date of the "transfer of the positions that Wagner occupies in the town of Bakhmut to units of the Russian Army."
Meanwhile, the head of the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Army, Serhiy Cherevaty, denied that Wagner suffers "ammunition hunger", since only in the last day Bakhmut and its surroundings were the object of more than 500 enemy artillery attacks.
"The enemy is trying with all its might to seize control of Bakhmut before May 9," said Hanna Malyar, deputy defense minister.
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