The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, praised the Wagner PMC, noting that its attack aircraft take on "an extremely hard part of the work" in the war. According to him, such units are effective and necessary. Therefore, after completing his civil service, the head of Chechnya plans to create his own private military company. He wrote about this in the Telegram channel.
“Already now we can confidently say that Wagner has ironically proved its effectiveness in military terms and has drawn a line under the talk about the need for PMCs. Without any doubt, such professional formations are needed and necessary. Therefore, when I finish my work in the civil service, I seriously plan to compete with our dear BROTHER Yevgeny Prigozhin and create a private military company, ”Kadyrov writes.
Earlier, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggested that Kadyrov would not support Prigozhin in the confrontation with the Ministry of Defense. These conclusions were drawn, as noted in the review, on the basis of Kadyrov's statements that he has "excellent well-coordinated relations" with the Ministry of Defense, and Chechen units follow the orders of any commander appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On February 16, Prigozhin, the founder of PMC Wagner, visited the commander of the Chechen special forces "Akhmat" Apti Alaudinov in the hospital, whom, according to Kadyrov, they tried to poison. “I was pleased to learn that Yevgeny Prigozhin showed such attentiveness towards our comrade in arms,” Kadyrov wrote after this meeting.
The authors of the ISW report believe that Prigozhin was thereby trying to enlist the support of Kadyrov.
On February 16, a video appeared on Telegram channels in which four armed men stated that their unit was “completely cut off from the supply of ammunition.” “We are sure that somewhere in the warehouses there is this ammunition, and we are in dire need of it. A huge number of people will survive and be able to continue to participate in hostilities, ”said one of the fighters in the appeal. According to him, the solution of the issue with the supply of ammunition "will affect the entire course of the war."
Prigozhin called the fighters who wrote down an appeal to the Ministry of Defense with a request to supply ammunition "wonderful" and assured that he himself would go around "all known offices in Moscow" until "the guys get everything they need."
In January, Prigozhin and the Ministry of Defense argued over the capture of Soledar. Prigozhin stated that the city was taken by the Wagnerites, the Ministry of Defense claimed that not only they were participating in the battles.
Commenting on the situation, the former “DPR Minister of Defense” Igor Strelkov (Girkin) notes that the purpose of the actions of the Ministry of Defense is to subordinate Prigozhin and his mercenaries to the orders of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“What is the purpose of such a position of the leadership of the RF Ministry of Defense is nowhere clearer: the goal is the complete subordination of PMC Wagner to the structures of the RF Ministry of Defense, either by reorganization and inclusion directly into the Armed Forces, or (at least) by changing the leadership. Tolerate arrogance (that's how, I'm sure, Shoigu perceives Prigozhin's activities) and competition Plywood Marshal does not categorically intend – it calls into question his status as "crown prince", ”writes Strelkov.
Prigozhin, according to Telegram channels, is actively using media resources in the confrontation. After the appeal of the mercenaries, the appeal of doctors as part of the Wagner PMC appeared on the network. Obviously, it also concerns the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
“Every day we lose hundreds of comrades-in-arms”, “we are not supplied with weapons and ammunition”, “stop messing around”, say the doctors in the appeal.
After the Ministry of Defense stopped supplying weapons, the requests of PMC mercenaries to the ministry became much more polite. Back in late December, the military with the Wagner PMC patch published a video, the authenticity of which was later confirmed by Prigozhin, where they turned to the head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov with a demand to give them shells, using obscene vocabulary:
“To the Chief of the General Staff: you are a f*ck and a f**k. We have nothing to fight with, we have no shells. There, the guys are dying for us, and we are sitting here, fucking not helping. We need shells, we want to f*ck everyone. We are fighting against the entire Ukrainian army near Bakhmut. Where are you, help us, finally. There is nothing more to call you, bl * d. Except for one word – f*dor.