FOLLOW US

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder of Russia's notorious private military. And the Wagner Group boss claims they have been cut off from official government channels after publicly pleading for ammunition supplies for his fighters in Ukraine. 

In a message posted on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin claimed that all special government phone lines and passes to agencies responsible for decision-making had been blocked to prevent him from asking for ammunition.

Prigozhin has been engaged in a public stand-off with Russian military officials for months. He has accused them of taking credit for victories won by Wagner fighters. And says they are slowing down the advance of Wagner units in Ukraine with red tape. 

He made headlines last month when he accused Russia's top brass of committing "treason" by intentionally depriving his fighters in eastern Ukraine of ammunition supplies.

Wagner Group Boss on social media

In response, Prigozhin called on ordinary Russians to help pressure the country's regular army into sharing ammunition with his fighters. Although he subsequently announced that ammunition shipments to Wagner had resumed, he revealed in a recent message that the situation had not seen much improvement.

The founder of Wagner has been flooding the internet with gruesome photos of dead Russian soldiers to drive his point home. 

He urged everyone from "driver" to "flight attendant" to help him by simply saying "give ammunition to Wagner." 

Prigozhin believes that if every Russian at their own level would do so, it would work.

"We'll make them give [us] ammunition," he insists.

As a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin's public disagreement with Russian military officials has raised eyebrows. And Putin has not spoken publicly about the spat between the massive Wagner Group and the official Russian forces. 

 It remains to be seen whether the Wagner boss’s latest attempt to pressure the government into providing ammunition for his fighters will be successful. For now, he can only ask for supplies through the media. And it is likely he will continue to do so.