The founder of Russia's Wagner Group militia said on Friday that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov must bear the responsibility for "tens of thousands of Wagner dead and injured."
"I will make sure of that," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video posted online by his press service.
Hours earlier he had announced that Wagner would quit the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which it has been trying to capture for Russia since last summer, accusing the Defense Ministry of denying him the ammunition and support he needed.