UPDATE - Head of Russia’s Wagner group suggests 'betrayal' may be behind lack of ammunition for his forces in Bakhmut

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL/MOSCOW (AA) - The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said Monday that he wrote a letter to the commander of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine on the need for ammunition for the group’s forces in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

"On March 3, I wrote a letter to the commander of the grouping of the special military operation about the urgent need to allocate ammunition,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram.

Prigozhin’s latest message came a day after he suggested a possible "betrayal" was behind delays in shipments of ammunition for the group’s forces in the fiercely contested city.

“Documents were signed on Feb. 22 in the evening and orders were given for shipment on Feb. 23, but most of the ammunition has not yet been shipped. For now, we are trying to figure out the reason -- the usual bureaucracy or a betrayal,” he said.

In a separate video message on the Wagner Orchestra Telegram channel Saturday, Prigozhin said the retreat of the group from Bakhmut would result in the collapse of the whole front, which he said “will not be sweet for all military formations protecting Russian interests."

Russia’s Defense Ministry denied claims of problems with the supply of ammunition, saying they were “nonfactual.”

The ministry said that all the demands of the units were fulfilled as soon as possible.

Prigozhin meanwhile said in a statement released late Monday on the social media account of his Concord catering company that a representative of the Wagner group was banned from entering the headquarters of the Russian army.

Noting that he wrote a letter to the commander of the troops of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on Sunday to ask for the immediate allocation of ammunition, Prigozhin said: “At 08:00 a.m. on March 6, the entry card of the representative at the headquarters was canceled and he was banned from entering the unit headquarters.”

Bakhmut is a large transport hub through which Ukrainian troops in the Donbas are supplied with weapons, military equipment and ammunition. The city has almost been captured by Wagner, Prigozhin claimed Friday.

*Zehra Nur Duz contributed to this story in Ankara