Illustrative Image
Several videos of Wagner fighters addressing the Russian military and political leadership were recently shared online.
In one of the videos, artillerymen of the Wagner PMC appealed to the Russian Ministry of Defense:
“We are members of the artillery unit of the Wagner PMC. Every day we carry out complex combat missions and cover our assault groups.
At the moment, we are completely cut off from the supply of ammunition. Right now, there is an acute shortage of ammunition for howitzers, 152 mm D-1, also for the MT-12 anti—tank gun, of 100 mm, high-explosive ammunition for the T—72 tank – and of 125 mm high-explosive shells for the 120 mm mortar 2B11.
We appeal to our colleagues and friends from the Ministry of Defense.
We are sure that you have ammunition somewhere in your warehouses. We need it badly. We would be extremely grateful if you would help us, and supply this ammunition.
A huge number of people will survive and will be able to continue taking part in hostilities, and this will affect the entire course of the war.
We will work for you, we will do this job. Help us with the ammunition.”
Another video showed a large number of fallen Wagner fighters. The spokesman claimed that the Wagner units are suffering heavy losses as a result of intensive combat operations. At the same time, he points out that such losses could have been avoided. The reason is the lack of timely supply of PMC units with weapons and ammunition.
Every day we lose hundreds of our comrades-in-arms. There could have been far fewer losses if we had been supplied with weapons and ammunition, with everything that is necessary. Stop messing around. Let us fight. Let us defend our country, our homeland. There are hundreds of our guys here. Send your children to fight, and your sons-in-laws who are making Tik-Tok videos, instead.
The head of the Wagner PMC, Evgeny Prigozhin, was asked by the media to comment on this video. Here is his response:
“Note that these wonderful fighters are heroes who die for our homeland, they did not call anyone obscene words and did not discredit the Ministry of Defense in any way. They simply asked their colleagues for ammunition, and gave a detailed list of what they needed.”
Earlier, the process of recruiting Russian prisoners to the Wagner assault units had been halted. Evgeny Prigozhin confirmed this, and commented that he did not understand why it was necessary to destroy a streamlined process that had already proven its effectiveness on the battlefield.
Today, the Wagner PMC is the most effective of the Russian units on the Ukrainian battlefields. Apparently, the success of Prigozhin’s fighters is the envy of some Russian military officials. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain these developments.
Illustrative Image: President Vladimir Putin and Vladislav Surkov
It looks like there is a new round of in-fighting between the elite factions within the Russian government; to be more exact, a confrontation between the so-called ‘liberals’ and the ‘patriots’.
One aspect of this struggle may be the recent change in the command of Russia’s military districts. On February 17, the Defense Ministry announced the appointment of new commanders of the Central, Southern, Western and Eastern Military Districts.
Interestingly, on February 16, former presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, who was in charge of Ukrainian issues from 2014 to 2020 and took part in the development of the Minsk agreements, stated that he personally did not proceed on the assumption that the agreements would be fulfilled. Previously, he had always claimed that Russia had counted on the implementation of these agreements.
Vladislav Surkov is known for his liberal views.
All these events in Russia are taking place on the eve of a key speech from Putin; his annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly. The speech, scheduled for February 21st, is expected to be a turning point in terms of Russian political reality.
