Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has threatened to pull out all of his mercenary forces from the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a dramatic escalation of his ongoing feud with the Russian Defense Ministry over supplies and support.
In a video posted by his press service on May 5, Prigozhin accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the country's top general of incompetent leadership and pledged to pull out Wagner forces from Bakhmut by May 10 -- the day after the Kremlin's planned World War II Victory Day commemorations.
"We were supposed to take Bakhmut by May 9, but pseudo-military bureaucrats who knew about it literally cut us off from artillery ammunition," Prigozhin said in the video, as he addressed the camera with a group of apparent Wagner soldiers in the background.
A lack of ammunition has led to "enormous" losses among his troops, Prigozhin said, and he lashed out at Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov, chairman of Russia's General Staff, accusing them of being "incapable of managing the task you've been assigned."
WATCH: After being recruited from prisons to fight in the war in Ukraine, some mercenaries from the private Wagner Group are accused of having committed violent crimes in Russia, including murder.
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Returning Wagner Mercenaries Accused Of Rash Of Violent Crimes
Prigozhin's forces have been at the heart of a brutal eight-month effort to capture the city of Bakhmut, located in the eastern Donetsk region.
Fighting alongside regular Russian forces, Wagner troops have deployed tens of thousands of prison convicts as part of their assault.
It's unclear how many Wagner troops have been involved in the battle, but the city has been demolished in the process, with Russian forces making painstaking, incremental gains at the cost of huge troop losses.
Earlier this week, the White House estimated that since December, Russia's overall casualty tally in Ukraine -- killed and wounded -- totals at least 100,000. That includes 20,000 Russians killed in action, of which about half of that number were Wagner mercenaries.
"The majority of [that figure] were Russian convicts fighting in Bakhmut," White House spokesman John Kirby said on May 2.
Prigozhin, along with other hard-line nationalists, has engaged in an increasingly public and increasingly bitter fight with Shoigu, Gerasimov, and other Russian commanders, accusing them of botching the overall Russian effort to defeat Ukraine.
The Wagner effort to take Bakhmut has also resulted in heavy Ukrainian casualties, and some Ukrainian soldiers have spoken out to question the decision to remain. Military experts have also questioned the strategic value of the city for Russia.
In the video, Prigozhin said the threatened withdrawal would not happen until May 10 so as "not to spoil" Victory Day. After that, he said, his troops will retreat from Bakhmut " to lick their wounds" and hand their positions over to Defense Ministry troops.
SEE ALSO: The Rise Of Prigozhin: 'Putin's Chef' Steps Further Into The LimelightThe Kremlin declined to comment on Prigozhin's remarks, as did the Defense Ministry.
In an another video statement released the day before, Prigozhin was shown standing next to dozens of corpses -- which he called "freshly killed Wagner fighters." In an expletive-filled rant, he accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of complicity in their deaths, because he said Wagner's forces weren't getting enough ammunition.
"They came here as volunteers and are dying here so that you could get fatter in your offices trimmed with mahogany," Prigozhin said addressing Shoigu and Gerasimov, calling them "bitches" and "sleazebags."
It was not possible to independently verify Prigozhin's claims. He has previously made similar comments and threats, however, which he later did not follow through on.
Prigozhin's comments also come as Ukraine is poised to launch what many predict will be a major counteroffensive against Russian positions, after a winter of failed Russian efforts to make major advances.
SEE ALSO: Why Ukraine's Looming Offensive May Be The Most Important Clash Of The War. Period.Open-source imagery, Western officials, and reporters on the ground have pointed to extensive new Russian defensive positions -- trenches, mine fields, anti-tank defenses -- in several part of Ukraine's south and east.
"We will wait until Russia's people will again need us, and I think that moment will come very soon," Prigozhin said.