The head of the private military company Wagner today asked the Russian defense minister to entrust Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s troops with its positions in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which he said he was leaving soon in protest over a lack of ammunition.

“I ask you to issue a combat order to transfer, before midnight on May 10, positions of the Wagner company to units of the Akhmat battalion in the city of Bakhmut and its surroundings,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter released by the press service of and addressed to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Wagner’s chief says he made the request “due to a long-term shortage of ammunition”, accusing the army general staff of supplying only 32% of the ammunition he has requested since last October.

Yesterday, Prigozhin threatened to withdraw next week his troops from the city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, accusing the Russian general staff of depriving them of ammunition.

On the Telegram app, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov then said last night that his fighters were ready to take over Russian positions in the city if the Wagner group withdrew its units.

“Our fighters are ready to advance and take the city. That’s why it would take a few hours,” said Ramzan Kadyrov, saying his soldiers have already fought alongside Wagner’s in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities of Popashna, Severodonetsk and Lisitsansk.

This morning, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a separate message, thanked Kadyrov for his proposal, assuring that Bakhmut, which has been resisting Russian attacks since last summer, will be “captured without a doubt” by Chechen soldiers.

Wagner’s chief has been accusing the Russian general staff for months of not supplying his men with enough ammunition to deprive them of victory at Bakhmut in favor of the regular army.