Putin Ally Vows to Send Troops to Bakhmut to Replace Wagner's Forces

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Friday he would send troops to fight in Bakhmut if the Wagner Group pulls out of the Ukrainian city.

Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made the pledge in a statement he posted on his official Telegram channel.

Earlier in the day, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries, announced he would be removing his fighters from Bakhmut on May 10 because of an ammunition shortage. Prior to his announcement, Prigozhin published a video in which he angrily blamed top Russian officials for the deaths of Wagner fighters because his units were not being provided with sufficient ammunition.

In his statement, Kadyrov bemoaned the "unpleasant" fallout between Prigozhin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. He said it was "doubly unpleasant" that the Defense Ministry doesn't meet with Prigozhin because he "deserves respect for the invaluable contribution" he's made in fighting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's forces since Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022.

Kadyrov asked that Russian officials answer Prigozhin's accusations of Wagner not being given enough ammunition. He then recounted how Chechen units that fought in Mariupol, Ukraine, once faced similar weapons issues.

"I personally called Moscow, talked to the commanders, commanders, superiors. A month later the problem was solved," he said. "Yes, it didn't work on the first call. But our units did not record videos, they did not give a pleasant informational occasion to the enemy."

The Chechen leader then reprimanded Prigozhin for showing the bodies of dead Wagner troops in his video, saying that the "filming the bodies of dead comrades for the sake of public outcry...is wrong. Let's never do that."

Kadyrov wrote that Chechen units fought alongside Wagner troops "in the most difficult areas" of Ukraine. However, he said that if "older brother Prigozhin" and Wagner leave, then he and his military would step in to fill the gap in Bakhmut.

"If the scenario is still like this, then our fighters are ready to advance and occupy the city. It's a matter of hours," he said.

Jason Jay Smart, a political adviser on post-Soviet and international politics, told Newsweek that Kadyrov's statement shows he is "eager to please his master—Putin."

"However, sending in Chechens raises a question: Why have they not been so engaged in the Battle of Bakhmut so far?" he said.

Smart added, "All of this really shows is how Kadyrov is trying to kiss up to Putin, while at the same time demonstrating that the regular Russian Army is hopeless without external assistance."

Kadyrov has been officially blacklisted from multiple countries and has been sanctioned by the U.S. State Department for violations of human rights, as well as by the European Union, the United Kingdom and several other countries.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.