Prigozhin accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of the mass death of “PMK Wagner” fighters

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s press service published a photo on Friday showing dozens of dead men lying on the ground. The businessman himself claims that the photo shows the fighters of the PMC Wagner founded by him who died in Ukraine. According to Prigozhin, all the people depicted in the photo died in one day, February 21, in the battles near the city of Bakhmut. He blamed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov for their deaths.

“These are the guys who died because of the so-called shell famine,” explained Prigozhin. wants to make a decision”.

As proof of his words, Prigozhin published a request for the necessary ammunition in the name of Valery Gerasimov. “105,000 are needed, but 3,600 are given,” Prigozhin explained, calling the leadership of the Russian army “maddened citizens.”

In recent months, the founder and sponsor of PMC Wagner, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has repeatedly publicly criticized the Ministry of Defense of Russia – in particular, for the incorrect, in his opinion, tactics of waging war in Ukraine and for refusing to issue shells to his fighters. Last week, Prigozhin said that the ministry wants to “destroy” Wagner’s PMC.

The military department did not comment on Prigozhin’s statements for a long time, but the day before they made the statement that “all requests for ammunition for assault units are fulfilled as soon as possible”, and the words about their shortage are considered “exalted”, “bringing a split” between the units of the Russian group in Ukraine is also “playing for the benefit of the enemy.” In response, Prigozhin accused the Ministry of Defense of lying.

A number of pro-war users of Telegram channels, including some so-called military supporters, on Wednesday tried to organize an online flash mob under the slogan of providing “PMC Wagner” with shells. Many similar comments also appeared in the broadcast of the concert in Luzhniki with the participation of Vladimir Putin.

• Private military company “Wagner” is a Russian unofficial military unit that takes part in ground operations in Syria, Africa and in the war with Ukraine. The company’s fighters are accused of committing numerous war crimes, including extrajudicial executions.
• In the summer of last year, after several military defeats by the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine, Wagner’s PMC and Yevgeny Prigozhin himself began to recruit Russian prisoners into their ranks and send them to war. Convicts who agree to take part in hostilities must spend six months on the front lines, they are forbidden to retreat and surrender under the threat of execution. Those who remain alive after six months are promised freedom. In this way, tens of thousands of fighters were recruited into the PMC. However, the mass media recently reported that the recruitment of prisoners to the “Wagner PMC” was stopped. According to some sources, this will now be handled by the Ministry of Defense.
• Officially, according to Russian laws, “Wagner PMC” does not exist. In the reports of the Ministry of Defense, mercenary detachments of this structure are called “volunteer assault detachments”.