May 7, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

The head of the private Russian military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed he would hand over his group's positions in frontline Bakhmut to the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s forces on May 10.

It was not immediately clear how serious Prigozhin, who often speaks sarcastically, is about the transfer to Kadyrov.

About Kadyrov: Notorious Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and leads sizable paramilitary forces that — while formally a part of Russian security structures — have personal loyalty to him.

Kadyrov has been accused by international and independent observers of gross human rights violations.

The Chechen leader said online Friday that he will be happy to take over "older brother" Prigozhin’s positions if Wagner decides to leave Bakhmut, and he reiterated that claim in another post Saturday.

"The fighters are on alert; we are only waiting for the order," Kadyrov said in a video message. "We have already begun to develop our strategy of action in this area together with the Russian Ministry of Defense, taking into account the enemy's tactics and the resources at our disposal. And believe me, the tactics will yield positive results."

What Prigozhin has said about the withdrawal: Prigozhin said Friday that Wagner will leave the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, citing a lack of ammunition supplies that Prigozhin blames on Russia's military command. 

He also claimed that "a little more than two square kilometers" (less than 1 square mile) in Bakhmut remain to be taken by Russian fighters.

Ukraine said earlier Saturday that Russian troops have not made any breakthrough in Bakhmut, waving off Prigozhin's ammunition shortage claims as a "bluff."

A car explosion wounded a Russian military blogger and left his driver dead Saturday, according to state media. It marked the second recent blast involving one of the country's nationalist writers, drawing further attention to the role they play in Moscow's propaganda machine.

The blogger wounded Saturday is Zakhar Prilepin, a former member of the State Duma whose Telegram channel has more than 300,000 subscribers. Last month, another military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg.

Writers like Prilepin and Tatarsky are just two examples of prominent voices in the murky world of Russia's "milbloggers."

Offering a rare critique: Unlike Russian state media, many of the most influential military bloggers have not shied away from criticizing Moscow for its battlefield defeats. That includes its retreat from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, which Prilepin called a "catastrophe" in a commentary last September. More recently, bloggers have criticized the stalling, drawn-out fight for Bakhmut.

Such commentary is especially rare since Russia forced the closing of any remaining independent media shortly after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Pro-Kremlin commentators, who are sometimes called "voenkory" for “war correspondents," have filled some of this information vacuum.

Uniquely well-sourced: Many of the bloggers have deep sources within the military, the Wagner mercenary group or among pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, which gives them unparalleled access to information.

Tatarsky himself was born in Ukraine, reportedly fought with Russian separatists in the Donbas and had close ties to Wagner.

"Obviously, they have a very biased view of the war. But they are critical to understanding what’s happening at least on one side of the flux," Rondeaux said.

Read more about the Russian "milbloggers" here.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson blamed Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom for the bombing of military blogger Zakhar Prilepin’s car in the city of Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday.

The ministry provided no proof for its allegations.

Russian pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia reported that Prilepin had surgery on Saturday and is at the hospital in stable condition. His driver was killed in the blast.

The Security Service of Ukraine, responding to online outlet Ukrainian Pravda, said of the incident: "Officially, we can neither confirm nor deny the involvement of the Security Service in this or that explosion that happens to the occupiers and their accomplices."

Russia blamed Ukraine for the death of another Russian military blogger in an attack last month at a St. Petersburg cafe. Kyiv denied any involvement.

The Russian Investigative Committee called the latest incident "a terrorist act" and said it plans to investigate the blast as such.  

The committee also reported a suspect in the car bombing has been detained, claiming that during interrogation, he testified "that he acted on the instructions of the Ukrainian special services." 

The suspect "planted an explosive device on the road along the route of Zakhar Prilepin's car, which he set off remotely," the committee alleged. "After that, he fled the scene, but was detained by law enforcement officers when he left the forest in another settlement."  

The committee published what it claimed was a video confession of the suspect, but it was not clear under what circumstances he was interviewed and whether he was under duress in the video. 

The UK's foreign office declined to comment when contacted by CNN. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.