Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the private military company Wagner, released a video message on May 10 announcing that Wagner forces would withdraw from Bakhmut (also known as Artemovsk in Russian) and transfer positions to units of the Russian Armed Forces. The video was released as part of a broader communications push from Prigozhin’s press office on the preceding Friday, May 5.
In his address, Prigozhin stated that Wagner would pull its fighters from Bakhmut because the city’s defenses faced a “doomed” fate without adequate ammunition. He addressed the military command and the President of the Russian Federation, arguing that the original plan had Wagner occupying Bakhmut by May 9, 2023. He claimed that under current conditions the Wagner fighters would need only to secure two square meters in a city measuring roughly 45 square kilometers, illustrating the perceived mismatch between mission requirements and available resources.
Prigozhin asserted that the decision to limit the fight stemmed from a pronounced shortage of shells, which he estimated at 90 percent, along with rising casualties among Wagner personnel. Nevertheless, Wagner would remain in Bakhmut through May 9 so that Victory Day, a major national holiday for Russians, could be celebrated with the display of Russian weaponry. He also argued that the ongoing ammunition deficit was driving exponential losses day by day.
According to Prigozhin, the chief of staff should specify when Russian army units occupying positions in Bakhmut would replace the Wagner fighters. He suggested that the remnants of Wagner’s forces would be moved to rear camps to recover from the fighting.
Prior to his remarks, Prigozhin had shown what he described as Wagner’s daily losses and pressed the Russian Ministry of Defense to supply more shells. The message elicited a response from the Kremlin, where the press secretary Dmitry Peskov indicated that while the matter had appeared in the media, he could not comment on transfers of special military operations.
conflict in Artemovsk
During today’s remarks, Prigozhin recalled Wagner’s involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, noting that the group began its operations in March of the preceding year. On October 8, a decision was made to conduct what he labeled the Bakhmut operation under the leadership of Army General Sergei Surovikin. He argued that the operation demonstrated high effectiveness by diverting substantial enemy forces and enabling the Russian army to hold advantageous defensive lines and continue advancing.
Prigozhin claimed that Wagner’s divisions subsequently “fell out of favor” with bureaucrats close to the military establishment, describing what he called artificial shell starvation and attempts to create gaps in staffing. He stated that Wagner’s offensive resources had diminished by early April, yet the group continued to advance despite enemy forces being numerically superior several times over. He argued that the offensive should have had at least a threefold advantage to be sustainable in the assault, according to his assessment.
In March this year he described the ammunition situation as far from ideal, noting persistent shortages despite some improvements. He recalled that in February he had already highlighted the problem of continuing shell shortages, despite efforts to resolve it. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that at the end of April the Ukrainian Armed Forces were preparing a counteroffensive and would not withdraw from Bakhmut, arguing that holding the city would prevent Russian troops from expanding their control and would provide a springboard for further operations toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.