Ukraine war: Russia's Wagner boss hints at 'betrayal' in Bakhmut battle

The head of Russia's Wagner private army has said it is not getting the ammunition it needs from Moscow, as it seeks to gain control of Bakhmut.

Russian troops - from Wagner and regular Russian forces - are trying to seize the eastern city from Ukraine.

But Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has complained of a lack of ammunition, saying it could be "ordinary bureaucracy or a betrayal".

Relations between Wagner and Moscow seem increasingly tense.

In the post on Sunday, Mr Prigozhin said documents were signed on 22 February, with ammunition expected to be sent to Bakhmut the next day.

But most has not been shipped, he said, before suggesting it could be deliberate.

Separately, in a video posted on Saturday - but seemingly filmed in February - Mr Prigozhin said Russia's front line would collapse without his troops.

"If now Wagner PMC [private military company] retreats from Bakhmut, then the entire front will crumble, and today PMC Wagner is cementing it.

"On the one hand, we are pulling the entire Ukrainian army onto ourselves, grinding and destroying it, and do not give it the opportunity to concentrate in other sectors of the front.

"On the other hand, we are moving forward and the rest [an apparent reference to the Russian military] are forced to somehow catch up in order to save face."

Last month, Mr Prigozhin complained that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov were withholding supplies of munitions to his troops.

In Saturday's video, he said his men feared that they were being "set up" as scapegoats if Russia lost its offensive in Ukraine.

"If we step back, then we will go down in history forever as the people who took the main step to lose the war.

"And this is precisely the problem with that same shell hunger."

On Saturday, the deputy mayor of Bakhmut told the BBC that there was street fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

However Oleksandr Marchenko said Russian troops had not yet gained control.

"They have no goal to save the city... their only goal is killing people and the genocide of the Ukrainian people," Mr Marchenko told the Today programme.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military officials said leaders of Russia's 155th Brigade fighting near the town of Vuhledar, south of Bakhmut, resisted orders to attack after sustaining severe losses.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had hit a command centre of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment in southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.