‘It’s a Really Bad Army’: Russia's Wagner Group Intends To Withdraw from Bakhmut
Statement shows just how unmotivated most Russians are in the fight for Ukraine, ambassador adds
The announcement by an infamous Russian private paramilitary group that it would be walking away from the intense battle for Bakhmut has only served to lay bare Russia's problems and deficiencies as it continues its unsuccessful campaign to conquer its democratic, sovereign neighbor.
The Wagner Group has said its troops would walk away from Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine's east, on May 10 — just a few days away — as the head of the organization blasted Russia's leadership for issues like a lack of ammunition.
The group made the announcement in a video from its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Bakhmut has been the site of much of the toughest fighting currently ongoing in the battle for Ukraine, which began with Russian leader Vladimir Putin's decision to invade the country last year.
“Yeah, it is remarkable to hear this kind of open statement, and it’s staggering to imagine that by the middle of next week, a group which has so publicly talked about the vital nature of the fight for Bakhmut, thrown thousands lives of convicts, often with very little training or tactical awareness into what, as you said, is the meat grinder, is now publicly telling the Russian minister of defense and essentially Vladimir Putin that they’re out by the middle of next week, just after the very important date in the Russian calendar, Victory Day on May the 9,” said Nick Paton Walsh, an international correspondent for CNN. “They’re saying they're sort of sticking around to make sure that isn’t ‘spoiled.’ That is an extraordinary challenge to the Kremlin on the surface and certainly suggests that the rifts inside the Russian military’s different branches that seem to have potentially been healed in recent weeks, well, they’re way out in the open.
“That video, that is a man essentially who’s brought people to the front line and thrown them towards Ukrainian guns very callously, suddenly claiming to have great emotion for the bodies behind him,” Paton Walsh added, in an on-camera report. “But it is an absolutely stark suggestion as to the poor condition of Russian forces and the bickering internally. I have to hold out the possibility that this might be some bit to get the Ukrainians to rush towards Bakhmut seeing an opportunity, but I have to say this is now two days, three days of very embarrassing things for Vladimir Putin.”
The announcement by the Wagner Group lays bare the inadequacies of the Russian war machine, according to retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson.
“What it tells us is that it’s a really bad army and they’ve got a lot of issues. I mean, mercenaries make great security guards, they don’t make good soldiers. And we’re seeing that play out right here,” Anderson said. “I mean, obviously this would be a terrible blow to the Russian military. They’re trying to fight for the city of Bakhmut. I can imagine if Gen. [George] Patton in the middle of his assault on Germany in 1944 had said, ‘You know, I’m not getting all the ammo I need, I’m pulling the third army out of this fight here.’ It’s ridiculous.
“It just shows how poorly led, how poorly equipped, how poorly trained and what a bad army that the Russian army is,” Anderson added. “They’re 10 years away from being a competent fighting force.”
Prigozhin's announcement shows how unmotivated Russians are in invading her country, according to Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States.
“Today, a day after that claim from Prigozhin, Russians have used phosphorus ammunition, and they even put out a video about it. So they are not motivated, and definitely, they do not know what they are fighting for because it’s our land, it’s our country, and they are simply committing war crimes one after another starting with the crime of aggression,” Markarova said. “Whatever this means, whether they will be replaced with someone or they will remain there, it doesn’t matter actually. We just have to keep focus on liberating more of our territories.”
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