Boss of Russian mercenary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that factions within the Kremlin were causing harm to the state by attempting to create divisions between him and Chechen fighters.

Wagner boss says Kremlin faction destroying Russian state, sowing discord between him and Chechen fighters

Russian mercenary group Wagner's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Saturday asked Moscow to let him hand over the Bakhmut positions to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. "I ask you to issue a combat order before 00:00 on May 10 concerning the transfer of the positions of the Wagner paramilitary units in Bakhmut and its periphery, to the units of the Akhmat battalion," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter to Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Wagner chief asks Moscow to let him hand over Bakhmut positions to Chechen leader

In a tit-for-tat move, Russia on Monday expelled two German diplomats after Berlin ordered two Russian diplomats to leave the country over the German court verdict last week which said Russian authorities were involved in the assassination of an ex-Chechen commander in a Berlin park two years ago.

Berlin park murder: Now, Russia expels German diplomats