Russia’s Wagner mercenary group chief has launched a series of criticism against the Russian government and gone vocal issuing outrageous and provocative statements on his Telegram channels.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin this week claimed that Moscow has suffered humiliating setback as the Russian brigade had “fled” around eastern city of Bakhmut in Ukraine.

Prigozhin, whose influence has risen hugely in Moscow’s Ukraine offensive, also accused a Russian military unit of fleeing positions near Bakhmut and said the state was incapable of defending its country.

“The situation on the western flanks is developing according to the worst of the predicted scenarios,” Prigozhin said in an audio message on Thursday, CNN reported.

“Those territories that were liberated with the blood and lives of our comrades… are abandoned today almost without any fight by those who are supposed to hold our flanks,” he added.

Prigozhin, who was known as Putin’s chief and his private army, is now publicly launching scathing remarks against Russia’s military leadership.

He also marred Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations with public and profanity-laced criticisms of the country’s top military brass.

“Today they (Ukrainians) are tearing up the flanks in the Artemovsk (Bakhmut) direction, regrouping at Zaporizhzhia. And a counteroffensive is about to begin,” he said earlier on Tuesday.

“Victory Day is the victory of our grandfathers. We haven’t earned that victory one millimeter,” he added.

Prigozhin’ Wagner Group has spearheaded Moscow’s fight for the eastern Ukrainian city. He said soldiers were fleeing because of the “stupidity” of Russian army commanders, who he said were giving “criminal orders”.

He recently also made a comment against senior Russian officials that raised eyebrows on social media.

He claimed that Russia’s uniformed military was starving his troops of shells and suggested that the higher-ups were dithering while Wagner fighters died.

“The shells are lying in warehouses, they are resting there. Why are the shells lying in the warehouses? There are people who fight, and there are people who have learned once in their lives that there must be a reserve, and they save, save, save those reserves,” he said.

“No one knows what for. Instead of spending a shell to kill the enemy, they kill our soldiers. And happy grandfather thinks this is okay,” he added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, he quickly backtracked on “grandfather” comment and clarified that he was referring to the former Defense Minister Deputy Mikhail Mizintsev or Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

“I spoke about a ‘grandpa’ in the context of the fact that we are not given shells which are kept in warehouses, and who can be a grandpa?” Prigozhin said.

The Wagner chief has been accusing Moscow’s top generals of trying to “deceive” President Vladimir Putin over the Kremlin’s Ukraine campaign.

“If all the tasks are being carried out in such a way as to deceive the commander-in-chief (Putin), then either he will rip your arse or the Russian people will, who will be angry that the war is lost,” Prigozhin said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman and an oligarch, is considered close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and known as “Putin’s chef”.

He founded the Wagner Group around 2014 and since then he has become a major player in Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.