On March 5, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner paramilitary organization, issued a warning that his forces were in a position to take over the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Through a drone, Ukrainian forces saw three Wagner troops had established a firing position in no-man's land. Prigozhin had previously announced that his troops had 'virtually surrounded' Bakhmut and had been promised ammunition by Moscow in February, but those supplies had still yet to arrive. He accused the Soviet defense minister and other generals of “treason” for withholding supplies and conceivably setting his forces up to take the fall if their side lost the war.

In order to address the ammo shortage, Prigozhin urged Moscow to supply the troops with more. Without it, he said, "the whole front will collapse” in the Ukrainian city