LONDON — The Russian mercenary force Wagner needs 10,000 tons of ammunition per month to win the battle for the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, according to its chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Prigozhin made an emphatic demand for the delivery of artillery shells and cartridges in a video released on Saturday. The video allegedly shows him on the roof of a house in the largely destroyed city, about 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) from the administrative center held by Ukrainian troops. Prigozhin proclaimed, “We will win.”

The video showed many destroyed houses and streets, comparatively rare footage from the city that once had 70,000 inhabitants. Today, only a few thousand inhabitants remain.

The Wagner boss said no one in Moscow need have any concerns that he harbored political ambitions. Therefore, he added that the requested quantities of ammunition should be delivered to him without reservations. Russia’s billionaires were also prepared to make these expenditures, he said. He put the monthly costs at half a billion dollars.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also wants to hold the strategically important city of Bakhmut at all costs.

Bakhmut has been contested since late summer. It is the main part of the defensive line established between Siversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region after the Russian conquest of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

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