MOSCOW, May 5, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The head of Russian paramilitary group Wagner

on Friday said he would pull his fighters from the front line in Ukraine
because of ammunition shortages, berating army chiefs in a grisly video.

"On May 10, 2023 we will have to hand over our positions in Bakhmut to units
of the defence ministry and withdraw Wagner units to rear camps to lick our
wounds," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement on Telegram.

"I will pull out Wagner units from Bakhmut because in the absence of
ammunition they are facing a senseless death," he said, adding that he was
waiting for "orders to leave Bakhmut".

Wagner fighters have taken a leading role in Russia's campaign in Ukraine,
spearheading the months-long fight to capture Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine --
the longest and bloodiest battle so far.

Earlier Prigozhin posted a video on Telegram showing rows of what he said
were dead Wagner fighters.

In that footage, he singled out Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of
Staff Valery Gerasimov for unprecedented criticism.

"Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is my fucking ammunition?" an angry Prigozhin said
in the video.

"They came here as volunteers and they are dying so you can get fat in your
wood-panelled offices," he said, standing by rows of bodies in military
uniform.

"These guys are from Wagner. They died today. Their blood is still fresh," he
said, adding that army chiefs "will go to hell" for not sending ammunition.

"We have an ammunition shortage of 70 percent," he said in his tirade, in
which several expletives were bleeped out.

"You sit in your (bleeped) expensive clubs. Your children are full of life
and film themselves in videos on YouTube."

"You think you are the masters of life and you have the right to decide on
their lives," he said, pointing at the bodies.

Prigozhin is closely linked to President Vladimir Putin and the two started
their careers in business and politics in their native Saint Petersburg
following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Prigozhin is frequently critical of the Russian army's top brass over the
issue of ammunition but the level of criticism and emotive language are
unprecedented.