ISW explains Prigozhin’s decision to hand responsibility for Bakhmut over to Kadyrov’s forces 

The Institute for the Study of War writes about this.

American analysts believe that the founder of the Wagner PMС Yevgeny Prigozhin and the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, have united in an effort to expose regular Russian troops as ineffective and create conditions for blaming the Russian Ministry of Defense for any failures in the Bakhmut area.

The ISW draws attention to the fact that Prigozhin announced that he intended to hand over Wagner’s positions in Bakhmut to Kadyrov’s forces. On the same day, Kadyrov published a letter to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin with a request to transfer Chechen units to Bakhmut.

ISW analysts emphasized that Kadyrov's statements about the ability to occupy the city "in a matter of hours" are nothing more than his characteristic bragging.

"The Russian MoD has yet to respond to Prigozhin and Kadyrov’s coordinated posturing about Bakhmut and may have been caught flatfooted by Prigozhin and Kadyrov’s statements," the ISW concluded.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin wrote a letter to the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense in which he announced his intention to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut on May 10.

• On May 6, Prigozhin announced that his mercenaries would hand over their positions in Bakhmut to Ramzan Kadyrov's forces on May 10.