Wagner chief asks Moscow to hand Bakhmut positions to Chechen forces

Kathmandu: The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner on Saturday asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions in the hotspot city of Bakhmut to Chechen forces.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, on Saturday asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions in the hotspot Ukrainian city of Bakhmut to Chechen forces under the command of 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,’ Prigozhin said in a letter to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

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

Earlier, Prigozhin threatened to pull his fighters from the front line in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine starting May 10, saying ammunition shortages meant they faced ‘senseless death’, slamming top Russian generals.

‘I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that on May 10, 2023, we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw the remains of Wagner to logistics camps to lick our wounds,’ Prigozhin said in a statement on Friday.