MOSCOW

Head of the Wagner mercenary group Evgeny Prigozhin on Friday said "monstrous bureaucracy" is behind the slow advancement of the Russian army near Ukraine's city of Bakhmut.

"We are not moving as fast as we would like. By 2023, they would have already taken Bakhmut, if there were no monstrous military bureaucracy and daily sticks in the wheels," Prigozhin told reporters at Wagner's military base in the war zone.

Prigozhin said at some point his group will not be able to implement the tasks due to structural changes -- it stopped the recruitment of prisoners and as people die at war, the number of its fighters will eventually decrease.

"Bureaucracy does not allow to increase the efficiency of procedures, and other units are not yet active," he stressed.

According to Prigozhin's assessment, the Wagner group confronts some 40,000-50,000 Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, and the city itself is "well-fortified."

The Wagner's head does not expect that the city will be taken in the near future.

Bakhmut is a large transport hub through which the Ukrainian troops in the Donbas are supplied with weapons, military equipment, and ammunition.