Wagner Chief Says He’s Received ‘Promise’ of More Ammo After Bakhmut Threat Videos

The head of Russia’s mercenary group Wagner said he has received “a promise” of more ammunition after he threatened to pull his fighters out of Bakhmut earlier this week. 

“They promised to give us all the ammunition and armaments we need to continue the operations,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday.

He added they had been assured "that everything necessary will be provided" to fighters around Bakhmut and that General Sergei Surovikin will from now on take "all decisions concerning Wagner's military operations in cooperation with the defence ministry".

"He is the only decorated general that knows how to fight," Prigozhin said.

In a series of extraordinary videos on Friday, Prigozhin said he would withdraw his fighters from Bakhmut “to lick our wounds” and avoid “facing a senseless death”, after he angrily accused Kremlin officials of withholding ammunition. 

"On May 10, 2023 we will have to hand over our positions in Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw Wagner units to rear camps to lick our wounds," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement on Telegram.

"I will pull out Wagner units from Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they are facing a senseless death," he said, adding that he was waiting for "orders to leave Bakhmut".

Earlier on Friday morning, Prigozhin released a shocking video (GRAPHIC WARNING) in which he appeared surrounded by the dead bodies of Wagner fighters.

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Shouting into the camera, he said: “These are the Wagner PMC guys who died today, still bleeding fresh. Now listen to me - these are somebody's fathers and sons. And those who don't give us ammunition will be in hell.”

On Saturday Prigozhin asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions in Bakhmut to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

"I ask you to issue a combat order before 00:00 on May 10 concerning the transfer of the positions of the Wagner paramilitary units in Bakhmut and its periphery, to the units of the Akhmat battalion," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

The Akhmat battalion refers to combat units under the command of Kadyrov, who has ruled Russia's Muslim-majority republic Chechnya for a decade and a half.