“Wagner Group boss warns of ‘tragedy’ for Russia amid ammunition shortages in Ukraine conflict”

The leader of the Russian private paramilitary group Wagner, Evgueni Prigojine, declared on Sunday that his men, who fight in particular in Bakhmout (eastern Ukraine), lacked ammunition and warned that a Ukrainian counter-offensive could represent “a tragedy” for Russia.

“We (Wagner) only have 10-15% of the ammunition we need,” Wagner’s boss pointed out in an interview with pro-Kremlin war correspondent Semyon Pegov. The oligarch, who blamed senior Russian military officials for the shortages, said he expected a Ukrainian counteroffensive around mid-May. “This counter-offensive could become a tragedy for our country,” he warned.

Yevgueni Prigojine, whose group was on the front line in the fighting around the city of Bakhmout, is in open conflict with the Russian military hierarchy, whom he accuses of not knowingly delivering enough ammunition to his men. He publicly attacked Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on several occasions.

Ukraine said this week that its preparations for a counter-offensive were coming to an end. On Sunday, the governor of the Russian region of Briansk, bordering Ukraine, announced that a Ukrainian bombardment having targeted a Russian village had left four dead and two wounded. The day before, a drone attack caused a fire in an oil depot in Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, according to the authorities of the peninsula annexed by Russia.