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| Wagner Mercenaries Are Prohibited Access to Russian Military Headquarters |
Moscow - Mercenary group Wagner Group denied access to Russian military headquarters. This happened when Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's feud with the Moscow military elite heated up. This feud occurred precisely when they were fighting against Ukrainian troops to fight over the city of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin said his representatives were denied access to Russian military headquarters after he complained about ammunition shortages suffered by Wagner Group mercenaries. Prigozhin said via the Telegram channel of his business press service, Concord Management and Consulting, that he had written to the Army Commander, saying his men were in dire need of ammunition.
"On March 5, I wrote a letter to the commander of the SMO [Special Military Operations] group about the urgent need to allocate ammunition," Prigozhin said. "On March 6, at 08.00 in the morning, my representative at the headquarters had their license revoked and denied entry to the headquarters," the Wagner Group boss continued, as quoted by Al Jazeera, Tuesday (7/3/2023). "We are continuing to destroy the Ukrainian army in Bakhmut," he said.
Despite the feud, the White House says Russian President Vladimir Putin is relying on the Wagner Group to make up for Russia's military deficiencies. However, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank, relations between Putin and Prigozhin have soured amid Prigozhin's harsh rebuke of the Russian Defense Ministry.
The rift began at the start of the year when Prigozhin said Wagner Group forces were behind the seizure of Soledar, a town in the Donetsk region that is the site of a much publicized conflict between Russian and Ukrainian troops.
After President Vladimyr Putin praised the Ministry of Defense for the success of the Russian army in Soledar without mentioning the Wagner Group, Prigozhin responded by saying that the Kremlin had not given the war effort the credit it deserved.
Despite Prigozhin's frequent public statements about Russian officials, especially Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the Kremlin rarely comments on the Wagner Group or its leaders. When asked directly about Prigozhin during a press conference last October with journalists, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the mercenary boss was simply a Russian citizen who had made a great and worthy contribution to his country.
When Peskov was pressed about the status of the Wagner Group, he said: "No comment."