Wagner chief Prigozhin ‘killed’ as 10 die in plane crash near Moscow

Jump to content Sign up to our newsletters Subscribe News Sports Voices Culture Lifestyle Travel Premium Close Wagner chief Prigozhin killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is thought to be among 10 people killed in a plane crash in Russia . Footage shows the flaming wreckage after a private jet came down near Moscow last evening. The plane carrying three pilots and seven passengers was en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg, according to officials cited by Russia’s state news agency Tass. Prigozhin was on the passenger list for the plane, but it wasn’t immediately clear if he was on board. As the news about the crash was breaking, Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke at an event commemorating the Battle of Kursk, hailing the heroes of Russia’s ‘the special military operation’ in Ukraine . The Wagner chief’s fate has been the subject of intense speculation ever since he mounted a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in late June. The Kremlin said the founder of the Wagner private military company, which fought alongside Russia’s regular army in Ukraine, would be exiled to Belarus. But the mercenary chief has since reportedly popped up in Russia, leading to further questions about his future. 1692810788 A private jet that crashed in the Tver region had Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on board, according to reports. Prigozhin spearheaded a revolt during June 23-34 against the Kremlin, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said could have pushed the country into civil war. After his failed mutiny, Prigozhin was given sanctuary in Belarus. But according to reports from the TASS news agency, the Russian Civil Aviation Authority has said the warlord was on the list of passengers onboard a crashed plane. Matt Drake 23 August 2023 18:13 1692846825 A Telegram channel linked to the Wagner mercenary group has published Yevgeny Prigozhin’s comments on his ‘inevitable’ death. The channel had pronounced him dead and hailed him as a hero and a patriot who it said had died at the hands of unidentified people it called ‘traitors to Russia.’ ”We will all go to hell, but we will be the best in hell,’ sums up Yevgeny Prigozhin,’ the channel said today in a post citing excerpts from an old interview. It also cited remarks on death by the Wagner chief’s close associate and co-founder of the group Dmitry Utkin. ‘Death is not the end, it’s just the beginning of something else,’ the channel said in a post. Prigozhin’s death would leave the Wagner Group, which incurred Putin’s wrath in June by staging an abortive mutiny against the army’s top brass, leaderless and raise questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere. Arpan Rai 24 August 2023 04:13 1692846000 Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency deliberately lured a Russian military pilot to land his Mi-8 helicopter at a Ukrainian airfield, a spokesman said. Earlier on Wednesday, Fighterbomber, a popular Russian pro-war Telegram channel focused on aviation, said it had information that the helicopter had got lost and accidentally landed in Ukraine ‘a couple of weeks ago’. In April, Ukraine’s domestic security service accused a number of Ukrainian military personnel of treason after what it said was an unsuccessful attempt to lure a Russian pilot to land at a Ukrainian air base, which led to a lethal Russian missile strike on that location in July 2022. Speaking on Wednesday, Ukrainian spokesman Andriy Yusov said: ‘This was a GUR operation. The aircraft moved according to the plan.’ Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda cited unnamed intelligence sources as saying the agency worked for over six months to convince the pilot to cooperate and fly the aircraft to Ukraine. The report said the helicopter landed in eastern Ukraine with the pilot. Two other crew members who were unaware of the plan were subsequently “liquidated”. A Mi-8 military helicopter flies over St. Petersburg Matt Drake 24 August 2023 04:00 1692845413 The European Union’s military leadership has expressed doubts that Ukraine will regain any territory lost in the war with Russia, reported German newspaper Die Welt. ‘It remains questionable whether Ukraine’s full sovereignty can be restored with the resources available,’ said Robert Brieger, chairman of the European Union Military Committee (EUMC), the highest military body in the EU which is composed of the 27 member states. Regarding the Ukraine’s counter-offensive, which has been ongoing since June, Mr Brieger said he would be ‘cautious to expect a breakthrough of the Ukrainian forces through the Russian defence lines.’ Arpan Rai 24 August 2023 03:50 1692842400 Ukraine has shared footage purporting to show the destruction of a Russian missile defense system in annexed Crimea. The video, posted on the offical Telegram channel of the Ukrainian MoD’s intelligence department, shows an aerial view of a huge explosion. Ukraine said the explosion took place near the village of Olenivka. ‘The explosion completely destroyed the system, its missiles and personnel,’ Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said in a statement, which was accompanied by the video. The claims and footage are yet to be independently verified. Ukraine has shared footage purporting to show the destruction of a Russian missile defense system in annexed Crimea. The video, posted on the offical Telegram channel of the Ukrainian MoD’s intelligence department, shows an aerial view of a huge explosion. Ukraine said the explosion took place near the village of Olenivka. ‘The explosion completely destroyed the system, its missiles and personnel,’ Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said in a statement, which was accompanied by the video. The claims and footage are yet to be independently verified. Matt Drake 24 August 2023 03:00 1692840300 British security officials believe Russia’s FSB intelligence service shot down Wagner mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private jet on orders from Vladimir Putin, according to The Telegraph . ‘Of course it’s Putin,’ one source told the paper. ‘Putin as a leader cannot afford to be humiliated in the way that he was. Putin functions on two things: Loyalty above talent… and the consequence of betrayal.’ Josh Marcus 24 August 2023 02:25 1692838800 Dmitry Utkin was reportedly onboard a jet that crashed with Yevgeny Prigozhin. He is listed by the European Union as the founder of the Wagner group which Mr Prigozhin was the leader of. The group is said to have been named after his call sign and it was a tribute to one of Hitler’s favourite composers. Mr Utkin was covered in Nazi tattoos including a swastika and SS insignia. He is said have been ruthless and used fear to maintain power. Mr Utkin was lieutenant colonel in the GRU military intelligence service and deployed to Chenya on two occassions. Also, he has been accued of war crimes. Matt Drake 24 August 2023 02:00 1692837220 Russian aviation officials have named the other people onboard the private jet crash that’s believed to have killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner founding commander Dmitry Utkin on Wednesday. Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Alexander Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov and Nikolay Matuseev were on the flight, according to Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsia , as were pilot Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova. Josh Marcus 24 August 2023 01:33 1692835200 Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton Alicia Kearns has commented on reports of a plane crash in the Tver region. There have been numerous reports claiming that Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a private jet crash. Many have speculated that Vladmimir Putin could be behind the crash after Mr Prigozhin launched a failed coup against the Kremlin in June. Ms Kearns, who is also Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee said: “The speed at which the Russian Govt has confirmed Yevgeny Prigozhin was on a plane that crashed on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg should tell us everything we need to know. “Reports Russian Air Defence shot down the plane suggests Putin is sending a very loud message.” Matt Drake 24 August 2023 01:00 1692831569 Kim Sengupta writes : It is a terminally violent twist – perhaps to have been expected, but staggering nevertheless – to one of the most astonishing episodes in recent history. Yevgeny Prigozhin , who attempted a coup against Vladimir Putin , is reported to have been killed in a plane crash in Russia . If the chief of the mercenary group, Wagner , was indeed among the ten passengers said to have died when the private jet went down in the Tver oblast near Moscow, then the immediate suspicion would be that this was assassination by the Kremlin. In the course of 24 hours of armed mutiny, two months to the day ago, Putin had accused Prigozhin of treachery and then pardoned him. The two men even had tea together soon afterwards. Now, it seems, retribution may have come in the form of a dish served cold. According to Rosavista, the Russian aviation authority, Prigozhin was one of the names on passenger manifest of the Embraer jet RA-02795. According to some reports, Dmitry Utkin, one of the founder members of the group whose call sign, Wagner, became its name, is also among the dead. Click here for Kim’s full analysis. Sam Rkaina 23 August 2023 23:59 Ukraine Russia Kyiv Moscow Yevgeny Prigozhin The crash site of a private jet carrying Wagner chief Prigozhin AFP via Getty Images Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in