Wagner chief says his mercenaries are starting to leave Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Head of the Wagner Private Military Company, said on 25 May that he has begun to withdraw his mercenaries from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and is handing over their positions to the regular Russian army. This process, he said, would last until 1 June.

Source: Prigozhin’s press service

Quote: "We are withdrawing units from Bakhmut today, 25 May, it's 05:00. By 1 June, most of them will be transferred to camps in the rear.

We are handing over the positions to the military, as well as ammunition – everything, including rations, but if it is difficult for the military, we will leave behind those who played the main part in the capture of Bakhmut...

We will leave two of our men with the military, namely Bieber and Dolin [evidently aliases of Wagner fighters – ed.]."

Background:

• Yevgeny Prigozhin complained to the Russian authorities about a lack of ammunition and threatened to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut after 10 May or hand over their positions to the Kadyrovites, but later he changed his mind and did not withdraw the Wagnerites from the city.
• Later, Prigozhin said that the Russian Ministry of Defence had promised the Wagnerites the amount of ammunition they needed.
• On 9 May, Prigozhin also said that the Ministry of Defence had threatened to deem the potential withdrawal of the Wagnerites from Bakhmut as treason.
• On 10 May, Prigozhin said that Wagner had been forced to hand over its "flanks" to the Russian Defence Ministry and complained about the "failure of the flanks". 
• On 20 May, Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesman for the eastern group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, explained that the reason Yevgeny Prigozhin was claiming to have completely captured Bakhmut was because he intended to withdraw his mercenaries from the ruined city, which could have been encircled by Ukrainian defenders, as soon as possible.
• Prigozhin, the Wagner Group’s financial backer, said that after 1 June, his mercenaries would not be present along the entire contact line in Ukraine for at least two months. The Institute for the Study of War believes that Wagner could miss the main stages of Ukraine's counteroffensive.

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