Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a co-founder and owner of the Wagner mercenary group, has called on Russians to pressure the army to give his fighters more ammunition amid Defense Ministry denials that it is holding back supplies for artillery and missile-launchers in Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
"If every Russian at his own level -- in order not to call anyone to rallies -- would simply say 'give ammunition to Wagner,' as is already happening on social media, then this would already be important," he said in an audio post on Telegram on February 22.
The call comes a day after Prigozhin accused top armed forces officials of committing "treason" by failing to supply his private troops, who have been a major force in the battle to take the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, with enough ammunition.
He says his troops regularly lack about 80 percent of the ammunition they need while fighting against Ukrainian armed forces in the Donetsk region.
In response, the Russian Defense Ministry rejected Prigozhin's claims, saying that all volunteer brigades in Ukraine's east are being supplied with all types of ammunition in a "timely" fashion.
"The attempts to impose a split in the tight mechanism of cooperation and support between Russian units are counterproductive and benefit the enemy," the ministry said in a statement without specifically naming Prigozhin.
Prigozhin subsequently called the Defense Ministry's statement a "spit in the eye of the Wagner private military group and an attempt to cover up its crimes against the fighters who today are carrying out acts of bravery." He added that there are no other volunteer groups apart from Wagner troops in the city of Bakhmut, where the most intensive battles have been lasting for months.
Two days earlier, in another audio statement, Prigozhin accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Russian Army General Staff Valery Gerasimov of refusing to deliver ammunition to Wagner in "an attempt to destroy" it. Prigozhin added that he was required to "apologize and obey" in order to secure ammunition for his troops.
Wagner has recruited thousands of inmates from penitentiaries across Russia since last summer.