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Standing in a field full of corpses, the head of the Russian mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has published on Friday a harsh video on Telegram in which he personally blames the top defense chiefs of Russia for the losses suffered by their fighters of the Wagner group in Ukraine.

Prigozhin's tirade reignited and escalated a long-running feud with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, whom he has repeatedly accused of depriving his forces of ammunition.

Prigozhin appears alongside dozens of bloodied corpses he said were those of Wagner fighters. His expletives were silenced in the video published by his press service. "We have a 70% shortage of ammunition. Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is the ******* ammunition?" he shouted into the camera.

Those responsible will go to hell, Prigozhin lamented, before claiming that Wagner's losses would be five times less if he had an adequate supply. "These are the Wagner guys who died today. The blood is still fresh," Prigozhin said, pointing to the corpses around him. "They came here as volunteers and are dying so you can get fat in your offices."

Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group has spearheaded the months-long Russian assault on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, began publicly antagonizing defense chiefs last year, accusing them of incompetence and deliberately depriving Wagner of ammunition out of personal animus toward him.

On Thursday, Prigozhin said that in a single day of fighting 116 Wagnerites had died due to the shortage of ammunition, which he described as "very serious".

Withdrawal of Bajmut

At the beginning of last March, Prigozhin even threatened to withdraw his detachments from Bakhmut. "If the private military company Wagner withdraws from Bakhmut, the whole front will crumble," he said at the time in a video posted on YouTube, warning that the collapse could reach "all the way to Russia's borders and, perhaps, beyond."

This Friday, Wagner's boss, outraged by the lack of ammunition, has set a date for the withdrawal of his group of mercenaries from Bajmut: May 10.

"I declare on behalf of Wagner's fighters, on behalf of Wagner's command, that on May 10, 2023 we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bajmut to units of the Ministry of Defense and withdraw Wagner's remains to logistical camps to lick our wounds," Prigozhin said in a statement.

"I withdraw Wagner's units from Bajmut becausein the absence of ammunition they are doomed to perish senselessly," he said.

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