Prigozhin Threatens to Pull Wagner Group Out of Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, has said his fighters will leave the fiercely contested Ukrainian city of Bakhmut if they do not receive ammunition deliveries from Russia.

Speaking to a Russian military blogger aligned with the Kremlin on Saturday, he said Wagner fighters would continue to wage war in the embattled Donetsk city, but would soon need to "withdraw in an organized manner or stay and die," according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank.

Prigozhin directly called on Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to "issue ammunition immediately," in a clip posted to Twitter by Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's internal affairs minister.

Prigozhin, a long-time associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly made public calls for ammunition supplies for his Wagner fighters in Ukraine. In February, he accused Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov, who commands Moscow's forces in Ukraine, of "high treason" and attempting to "destroy" the Wagner Group through a lack of ammunition.