Prigozhin, a mercenary leader, was reportedly on board the crashed plane, as stated by a Russian agency.
All 10 individuals on board a private jet tragically lost their lives in a crash on a fateful Wednesday in Russia, according to emergency personnel. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenaries, was listed as a passenger; however, immediate confirmation of his presence was unavailable. (August 23)
From Tallinn, Estonia — According to Russia's civil aviation service, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief armed insurrection against the Russian military earlier this year, was among the passengers on a jet that tragically crashed to the north of Moscow on Wednesday, resulting in the unfortunate loss of all 10 individuals on board.
The founder of the Wagner private military business, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been subject to intense speculation since his involvement in the aforementioned rebellion. Consequently, the crash has given rise to numerous questions.
At the time, the then-President Vladimir Putin labeled the uprising as "treason" and a "stab in the back," vowing to take retaliatory measures. However, charges against Prigozhin were swiftly dropped. The Wagner commander, known for his formidable troops that played a significant role in Ukraine, was granted permission to go to Belarus, although there were rumors suggesting his occasional presence in Russia.
Interestingly, this incident follows reports in Russian media about the dismissal of a senior air force commander, who was associated with Prigozhin.
As reported by witnesses to Russia's state news service Tass, a jet carrying three pilots and seven passengers, en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg, tragically crashed around 300 kilometers (approximately 185 miles) north of the capital city.
Rosaviatsia, Russia's civil aviation organization, promptly confirmed Prigozhin's presence on the flight manifest and later verified his actual presence on the ill-fated aircraft.
Dmitry Utkin, whose call sign "Wagner" lent its name to the military company, along with Prigozhin, were both on board, according to Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia area of Ukraine.
In the wake of these events, US President Joe Biden commented, "I don't know for sure what happened, but I'm not surprised."
When news of Prigozhin's passing first emerged, Chatham House scholar Keir Giles advised against jumping to conclusions. Giles noted that "multiple people have changed their names to Yevgeniy Prigozhin" in an attempt to conceal their identities.
Giles suggested not being shocked if Prigozhin were to soon appear in a brand-new video from Africa.
Flight monitoring data obtained by The Associated Press indicated that a private jet previously flown by Prigozhin took off from Moscow on Wednesday night before its transponder signal vanished mere minutes later.
The jet was in mid-flight and moving at a considerable speed when communication abruptly ceased. A partial tail number matching a jet previously associated with Prigozhin was discernible in a photograph of smoldering wreckage shared on a pro-Wagner social media account.
Videos posted on the pro-Wagner Telegram channel Grey Zone depicted a plane plummeting like a stone from a dense cloud of smoke, spinning wildly as it descended. A frame-by-frame analysis by The AP suggested that a mid-flight explosion likely triggered the freefall, a consequence of severe aircraft damage. Notably, the images indicated a missing wing.
The tragic collision claimed the lives of all 10 passengers on a business plane en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg, as reported by Russian emergency officials. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenaries, was listed on the passenger manifest according to officials, though his presence on the flight remained uncertain. (August 23)
As is standard practice in such cases, Russia's Investigative Committee initiated an inquiry into the disaster on suspicion of air safety regulation violations.
Even if confirmed, Prigozhin's passing is unlikely to significantly affect Russia's conflict in Ukraine, where his troops participated in some of the deadliest combat in the past 18 months.
Following the seizure of Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, his forces withdrew from the front lines in late May, marking an end to a prolonged struggle. Russian forces had fiercely battled to secure Bakhmut for months, enduring perhaps the most intense engagements of the entire conflict.
In the aftermath of the uprising, Russian authorities stipulated that his soldiers could only return to Ukraine as members of the regular army.
Amid these developments, General Sergei Surovikin was reportedly relieved of his role as the head of Russia's air force earlier this week, as per anonymous sources in Russian media. General Surovikin, once responsible for Russia's operations in Ukraine, has not appeared in the media since the mutiny, when he made a video plea for Prigozhin's soldiers to retreat.
As news of the disaster began circulating, Putin addressed a commemoration of the Battle of Kursk, lauding the Ukrainian battle heroes of the Russian military.
This clarification has been made to reflect that the crash site is, in fact, approximately 300 kilometers (not 100 kilometers) away from Moscow.