There are media reports the the leader of Wegner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin has died in plane that crashed Wednesday in Russia’s Tver region, killing all 10 people on board, Russia’s aviation authority said.but officials have not confirmed Prigozhin was killed in the crash.
Recall that the mercenary boss led a short-lived rebellion in what was seen as the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule since he came to power more than two decades ago.
The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has launched an investigation into the crash. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Three crew members and seven passengers were on board the Embraer jet, per Russian media. At least eight bodies have reportedly been found at the crash site near the town of Kuzhenkino, according to government emergency services.
Dmitry Utkin, a Wagner commander and Prigozhin’s right-hand man, was also listed as a passenger on the plane.
A playback of the flight showed that the plane was detected near Moscow around 2:59pm (UTC), according to Flightradar24, a live air traffic website. At 3:11pm UTC, the aircraft lost signal at 28,000 feet in altitude. Before it lost signal, the plane did not experience a loss in altitude, according to the playback.
Russian state media reported that the private jet was on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
Putin was in the Kursk region when the crash took place.
Putin had called Prigozhin and his mercenary forces traitors during the short-lived mutiny, which ended after a deal in which the Wagner boss agreed to end his forces’ march toward Moscow and go to Belarus in exchange for amnesty and certain security guarantees.
Prigozhin, however, was spotted in Russia multiple times since the deal was brokered.
He also met with Putin just days after leading the rebellion. Prigozhin insisted his aim was not to overthrow the government, but to protect his forces. He had publicly feuded with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for months and called for his removal.
Prigozhin appeared in his first Wagner recruitment video on Monday, saying his group was “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free.”
It’s unclear when the video, posted to several Wagner-linked Telegram accounts, was filmed.
Separately, the Kremlin on Wednesday relieved Gen. Sergei Surovikin of his duties as commander of the country’s aerospace forces. Surovikin, whom Prigozhin had praised, had not been seen in public since the Wagner group’s rebellion in June.
