Wagnerites Will Not Leave Bakhmut. Defense Intelligence Denies Prigozhin's Claim

The founder of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is not going to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut, Donetsk Region. Prigozhin makes his statements to relieve himself of responsibility for the failure of promises to take the city, said Ministry of Defense spokesman Andrii Cherniak. It was reported by RBC-Ukraine on Friday, May 5.

Cherniak stressed that Prigozhin promised to capture Bakhmut several times, made loud statements and set certain deadlines, but he did not succeed.

“Prigozhin will not withdraw the Wagnerites from Bakhmut. These statements were made by him against the background that he cannot fulfill another promise - to capture Bakhmut by May 9. Therefore, he is now trying to make someone guilty of this, because he now understands that he can no longer keep his word," Cherniak emphasized.

The representative of the Defense Ministry noted that at the moment no withdrawal of mercenaries in the Bakhmut area is recorded. Also, the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine does not confirm such a bad situation with the provision of Wagnerites with ammunition as they are trying to show it, but still there will be not enough supplies for mercenaries, Cherniak said.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on May 5, the founder of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a video message that the private campaign on May 10 would leave Bakhmut in the Donetsk Region and transfer its positions to the Ministry of Defense of the aggressor state due to lack of ammunition.

On the morning of May 5, the founder of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, showed the mountain of corpses of the killed Wagnerites and demanded ammunition from the Minister of Defense of the aggressor state of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu and the military leader Valery Gerasimov.

On April 28, Prigozhin announced that the Wagner PMC was depleting and may cease to exist.