Wagner Chief calls Russian Military leaders ’clowns’ as fighters ’pulled from Bakhmut’ to Donetsk

Wagner PMC personnel will complete their pullout from Bakhmut by June 5, Russia’s most powerful mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin told a group of Russian military correspondents on Thursday (June 1). On a video released by his press service, Prigozhin wearing military fatigues is seen shaking hands and speaking to a group of his men, telling them “We should not be in Bakhmut any longer.“ In a separate video also released by the Wagner press service, Prigozhin is seen speaking to a group of Russian reporters saying his Wagner group would fight on in Ukraine if his men got a separate section of the front without having to depend on “clowns“ who ran swathes of the Russian armed forces. Celebrating his 62nd birthday on Thursday at a training camp, Prigozhin again confirmed that his men would finally leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on June 5 after handing it to the Russian army. The Wagner mercenaries captured the devastated city in late May after months of