Dramatic video footage emerged on Sunday (May 14) of Russian troops fleeing the battle for Bakhmut in Ukraine.
The clip shows Vladimir Putin’s forces scrambling to safety through woodland after being attacked from above.
The seemingly hasty retreat comes more than eight months after conflict began in the eastern city.
And a second film, recorded on the same day, meanwhile, reveals Russian heavily armoured vehicles (HAVs) pulling out of the area.
It sparked Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who appears to have become more irate with each video this week, to warn of an impending “tragedy” for his nation.
READ MORE: Ukraine humiliates Wagner’s Prigozhin in scathing advance rundown
The once-loyal henchman, who labelled Putin an ‘a**hole’ in a video rant last week over the lack of ammunition being supplied to his fighters in Bakhmut, tore into the Defence Ministry.
“The flanks are crumbling and the frontline is failing,” Prigozhin began.
“And Defence Ministry’s attempts to smooth over the situation somehow in the media space are leading – and will lead – to a global tragedy for Russia. So stop lying immediately.
“If you’ve run away, set up new lines of defence. But what you’ve trained for that defence is not capable of holding that defence. They are simply nobodies. And so what has been happening recently and what I’ve been warning about for a long time, is coming to pass. And it’s leading to a great tragedy for our country.”
It comes two days after the mercenary leader made fun of Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister for the Kremlin, while acknowledging that the situation on the flanks is worse than expected.
He said: “The situation on the flanks is shaping up according to the worst predicted scenario.”
Prigozhin then jokingly requested that Shoigu should come to Bakhmut, before mocking his civilian background in engineering.
He asked Shoigu: “Given your super long experience, please can you come to Bakhmut?”