The head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, demanded that the issues of continuous supply of troops in the "Northern Military District" areas with all the necessary weapons and equipment be kept under special control. He set such a task for Colonel-General Alexei Kuzmenkov, who is responsible for the logistics of the army, during the inspection of military equipment in the Southern Military District, the Defense Ministry said .
Earlier, Prigozhin recorded a video message to the military leadership of the Russian Federation against the backdrop of the corpses of Wagner PMC mercenaries. He stated that the shortage of ammunition reaches 70%, and criticized Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. Later, Prigozhin announced that the Wagner PMC would leave Bakhmut on May 10 and hand over positions to units of the Ministry of Defense.
During the war in Ukraine, Wagner PMC fighters openly criticize the Russian command, and also use obscene language against the generals. At the end of December, the fighters published a video message to the head of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov: “To the Chief of the General Staff: you are a f*ck and damn it. 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 here near Bakhmut against the entire Ukrainian army.”
Prigozhin himself repeatedly turned to Gerasimov and Shoigu, accusing them of undersupply of weapons, as follows: “Why don’t Wagner PMCs give ammunition? <…> Because a handful of near-military functionaries decided that this was their country, that this was their people, they decided that this people would die when it was convenient for them, when they liked it .” He suggested equating their actions with treason. This is not the first conflict in the struggle for influence between PMCs and the military department. In January, Prigozhin and the Ministry of Defense argued over the capture of Soledar. The head of the PMC stated that the city was taken by the Wagnerites, while the Ministry of Defense, in turn, claimed that not only PMC mercenaries were participating in the battles.