May 16, 2023

Where's the Ammunition?


Where's the Ammunition?
Wagner Group plot in the Chervyshev cemetery. Tyumen, Russia. Wikimedia Commons.

Following a threat on May 5 to pull his forces out of Bakhmut due to a lack of ammunition, Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) head Yevgeny Prigozhin reported that the Russian Ministry of Defense promised him "as much ammunition and weapons as we need" to continue operations there.

Al Jazeera reported that, in an audio message posted to Telegram on May 7, Prigozhin said he has "been promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue further operations. We have been promised that everything needed to prevent the enemy from cutting us off will be deployed."

On May 5, Prigozhin appeared in a video, standing in a field of corpses, and blasted Russian defense leaders for a lack of assistance and resources. He claimed that Wagner was 70% short on the ammunition it needed and asked angrily, "Shoigu, Gerasimov, where the f*** is the ammunition?" He complained of the defense ministers' incompetence, saying that his men "came here as volunteers and are dying so that we can live in our mahogany offices." He said that pulling out of Bakhmut was required within five days – by May 10 – to prevent unacceptable losses.

The May 5 video was later lampooned by independent journalist Dmitry Kolezev, who noted that "to make them stop dying, you just have to stop sending them there."

Prigozhin's older video appears to be part of a wider tension with Russian military leaders. One day prior, on May 4, he warned against the use of nuclear weapons, a threat repeatedly postulated by Putin, stating that "we will look like clowns" if nuclear weapons are used in response to the recent Kremlin drone incident.

The threat of abandoning Bakhmut was particularly contentious on the Russian side, not only because, as The Hill reports, "Bakhmut is a strategic point in the Donetsk region and the wider eastern Donbas, which Russia has looked to seize this spring," but also because May 10 was the day after Victory Day, the major Russian holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany.

You Might Also Like

Violence Comes Home, Too
  • April 22, 2023

Violence Comes Home, Too

A man from Nizhny Novgorod fought in Ukraine. When he returned to Russia, he killed his wife.
The Wizard and His Little Wagners
  • March 09, 2023

The Wizard and His Little Wagners

The Wagner Group's new youth club sponsors pro-militaristic activities and suggests it undertakes recruitment by hypnosis.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

Fearful Majesty
July 01, 2014

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955