By Smartencyclopedia Newsroom with agencies

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has announced that his troops will be leaving the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut due to a dispute over support from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.

Wagner has been leading Russia’s efforts to capture Bakhmut since last summer, which has resulted in the longest and deadliest battle of the Ukrainian conflict.

In a statement, Prigozhin stated that the Wagner fighters and command will transfer their positions in Bakhmut to the defense ministry’s units on May 10 and withdraw the remaining forces to logistics camps.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, stated that he is withdrawing his troops from Bakhmut due to the lack of ammunition, which puts them at risk of dying pointlessly.

However, since Prigozhin has a history of making impulsive remarks, it is possible that this threat of withdrawal is a form of brinkmanship.

In the past, he has made comments that he later withdrew, claiming they were made as a joke.

The leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, posted a video on Friday where he was surrounded by corpses of Wagner fighters, and he swore at Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff of the armed forces, Valery Gerasimov.

He blamed them for Wagner’s losses, stating that they had starved the group of ammunition. Mr. Prigozhin further added that Wagner has a 70% shortage of ammunition and accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of being responsible.

He demanded to know, “Where is the ammunition?” He also stated that if Wagner was adequately supplied, their losses would be five times smaller.

“These are Wagner lads who died today. The blood is still fresh,” Mr Prigozhin said, pointing to the corpses around him. “They came here as volunteers and they’re dying so you can get fat in your offices.”