Wagner’s mercenaries have not yet received the ammunition promised by Moscow, the head of the paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Tuesday, shortly after he said there were preliminary indications that they had begun to receive them, Reuters reported.

But Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have spent almost 10 months trying to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, added that he did not want to “spoil” Russia’s big Victory Day parade on Tuesday and would reveal more details later.

“The people who were supposed to fulfill the orders (for transportation) have not fulfilled them until now, on the last day,” Prigozhin said in a video post on his Telegram channel.

On Monday night, he said preliminary data indicated that his troops had started receiving ammunition, while warning that the mercenaries had “practically not seen any”.

President Vladimir Putin will address a military parade on Red Square, one of Russia’s most famous public events, organized to mark the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s military vowed to prevent Moscow from making a last-ditch effort to capture Bakhmut, denying Putin what would have been his only reward for a costly winter offensive before Tuesday’s holiday.