The head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, repeatedly fired in the direction of the Russian military leadership. Finally, the dispute even escalated when he threatened to withdraw his troops from Bachmut. The British secret service sees this as proof of how difficult the situation is.
British secret services see tensions between the Russian government and the Russian private army as a sign of the precarious situation in the Ukraine war. The conflicts, some of which have been played out in public, made it clear how difficult it is to maintain sufficient levels of manpower and ammunition in the current Russian offensive, according to the British Ministry of Defense's daily briefing.
The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had repeatedly criticized the Russian military leadership. According to Prigozhin, the Wagner fighters blocked Bakhmut, and now the Ukrainian soldiers are trying to encircle the Russian units and break the blockade. "Ukrainian armed forces will fight for Artemovsk (Russian for Bakhmut) to the end, that's obvious. We should do our job to the end," Prigozhin said.
He again demanded more ammunition from the Russian military leadership and even threatened to withdraw his troops. "If Wagner withdraws from Bakhmut now, the entire front will collapse," Prigozhin said in a video published on Telegram. "The situation will not be nice for any military formations protecting Russian interests."
The fact that Ukraine is continuing to defend the heavily contested city of Bakhmut is weakening the armed forces on both sides, the British said. The Ukrainians were said to have been able to stabilize their defense line over the weekend after Russian troops had previously penetrated the north of the city. Supply, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly difficult because important access routes have been destroyed and the Ukrainians are increasingly having to resort to muddy, unpaved roads for supplies.
Army chief Valeriy Zalushnyi and the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, spoke on Monday at a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi for a "continuation of the defense operation" and a "strengthening of our position in Bakhmut", the presidential office in Kiev said after speculation about a possible withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers.
