Fighting is raging in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, which has seen the fiercest fighting since the Russian attack began in February 2022, and the fighting is being led by the “Wagner” militants, the Russian special military group.
A new assessment from the Washington-based institute found that Prigozhin and Kadyrov “probably hope to portray the Russian Defense Ministry and its conventional forces as ineffective” and lay the groundwork for “blaming the state administration for the failure of operations in Bakhmut”.
This comes at a time when the “Wagner” group announces its intention to hand over the sites it controls in Bakhmut to the Chechen forces, led by Kadyrov.
Wagner played an important role in Russian operations in Bakhmut, but Prigozhin sharply and publicly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry and the country’s top military officials for Moscow’s failure to honor its commitment to provide its forces with sufficient ammunition.
But in a separate statement on Sunday, reported by Russian state media, Prigozhin said his fighters would receive “as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue fighting.”
What did the American Institute for the Study of War say?
Prigozhin described the battle for the Donetsk region as “a concern for Wagner and now Ahmad (the Chechen forces)”. Prigozhin ruled out the role of the Russian Air Force in Bakhmut. Such measures indicate that Prigozhin is trying to “save face” in case Wagner’s forces fail to take control of Bakhmut. These changes would lay the groundwork for blaming the Russian Defense Ministry for future failures. If Ahmad’s forces encounter difficulties similar to Wagner’s and cannot fully capture Bakhmut, Prigozhin and Kadyrov can blame the Russian Ministry of Defense for not supporting their efforts enough.
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