Prigozhin: Defense Ministry will send Wagner Group ammunition to continue fighting in Bakhmut

Russia’s Defense Ministry has promised to provide Wagner Group as much ammunition and weaponry “as necessary to continue combat,” says Wagner head Evgeny Prigozhin. The catering tycoon’s press service published his response:

This evening we received the first combat order we’ve gotten this whole time. If we remove the secret information, the bottom line is this: they promise to give us as much ammunition and weaponry as we need to continue further actions, they swear that they’ll deliver everything we need on our flank so that the enemy can’t cut us off, they say we can act in Bakhmut as we consider necessary, and they’re giving us [General Sergey] Surovikin as the person who will make all decisions about Wagner combat actions in cooperation with the Defense Ministry. He’s the only person of his rank who knows how to fight. There’s no more reasonable person with this rank.

Evgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group mercenary fighters have been the main Russian troops in the battle for Bakhmut, has conducted a months-long, public conflict with Russia’s Defense Ministry about ammunition. On May 5, Prigozhin posted a video in which he browbeat high-ranking members of the Defense Ministry while standing in front of the bodies of recently killed Wagner fighters. The following day, he announced that Wagner Group would leave Bakhmut on May 10, transferring its positions to the Chechen Akhmat battalion.