Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-connected businessman who controls the notorious Wagner mercenary group, has accused “decision-makers” in Russia of treason for not providing his troops and military units of Russia's regular armed forces with ammunition needed to fight in Ukraine.
"A criminal group did not give us ammunition,” Prigozhin said in a five-minute audio statement posted on Telegram on April 26 in which he reiterated his claim that ammunition is being stockpiled in depots but not delivered to the battlefield.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Ukraine Live Briefing gives you the latest developments on Russia's invasion, Western military aid, the plight of civilians, and territorial control maps. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
Prigozhin claimed his troops have no ammunition to fight against Ukrainian artillery because of "treason" by unspecified top Russian officials, pledging to reveal names "when the time comes."
“I think what is happening today is a crime against Russia and Russian people. The criminals must be held accountable," he said.
Prigozhin said that Ukraine's armed forces will most likely start an expected counteroffensive in early May "to cut our flanks that we are unable to cover" because of the lack of ammunition.
"We are doing all we can with that minimal quantity of ammunition we have now," Prigozhin said in the statement, in which he noted that many Wagner mercenaries had died, were wounded, or had left the group after their contracts expired.
"Those thugs who make decisions, they must be held responsible to the mothers, children, and wives of those who perished, because instead of one person, several people are dying at once. Instead of one person, five die when storming a building, because we do not have ammo."
Prigozhin has previously referred to fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as a "meat grinder" and has clashed with Russian military officials over ammunition supplies. Ukrainian and Western military officials have said that Russian conscripts and Wagner forces were being treated like "cannon fodder" in the war.
Prigozhin also said those responsible for supplying Wagner troops and regular Russian armed forces with ammunition "are sitting on the ammo like roosters sit on eggs" instead of sending it to the battlefield.
He used the word “petukhi” (roosters) instead of the word for hens. The word “petukhi” is used among criminal groups across the former Soviet Union as a homosexual insult.
Prigozhin added that the Ukrainian armed forces' counteroffensive is "inevitable," adding that Wagner will be able "to stand here for two to three more weeks until the last bullet remains in the assault rifle's magazine."
In an apparent attempt to justify his troops' possible defeat, he added: "In general, the private military group Wagner has completed its historical mission."
Prigozhin's statement comes less than two weeks after he urged the Kremlin to declare that the goals of what Moscow calls its “special military operation in Ukraine” have been achieved and to stop the fighting, emphasizing that “many of those who yesterday supported the special operation, today either have doubts or are categorically opposed to what is happening.”