The owner of the Russian Wagner mercenary company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, yesterday accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov of wanting to "destroy" his company. “It is comparable to a betrayal of the homeland. Meanwhile, the Wagner private army continues immersed in the bloody battle for Bakhmut and loses hundreds of combatants every day," Prigozhin denounced on Telegram. And he pointed out that Shoigu and Gerasimov forbid giving Wagner's fighters ammunition and "assisting them with air transport."
Prigozhin had previously complained about the "total starvation" of ammunition in the mercenary detachments fighting in the Donbass and had asked the Defense Ministry for more shells. “It is a very serious problem. By the way, there is ammunition in the country, ”he also wrote on Telegram. Wagner's boss insists that Defense has ignored all of his requests.
Prigozhin has repeatedly accused Defense of trying to steal victories from him, such as in the battle of Bakhmut, where this force has taken several towns, and says that the Russian army has not deployed a single unit. According to the Russian press, Prigozhin stopped recruiting convicts to fight in Ukraine by order of the Defense Ministry.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has refused to satisfy the demand of some deputies to legalize private military companies, but he has ordered that the families of mercenaries be equated with those of soldiers and mobilized when it comes to receiving social benefits.
