Several witnesses attended this Wednesday, August 23, the crash of the plane of the former head of the Wagner group, Evgueni Prigojine. Smoke could be observed and sounds of explosions were heard.
“They shot it down, it went ‘boom’ twice, it exploded and it fell,” a woman who filmed and then posted the plane’s long tumble in the sky, near Koujenkino in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow. AFP was able to authenticate these images broadcast on social networks with the help of its team on the ground, who identified the same metal tower, visible in the video of this resident and near the site of the disaster.
An elderly woman, on condition of anonymity, also said that the event took place around 6:30 p.m. and that she then heard “bangs”.
“They write that it was Prigozhin (on board). Others say it was a lookalike. We don’t know,” she said, illustrating the uncertainties and speculation about the possible assassination of the one who had become the enemy of the Kremlin.
There is no indication that a surface-to-air missile shot down the plane carrying the head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigojine, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The U.S. military has “no information that a surface-to-air missile” was involved in the crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, spokesman Pat Ryder said, calling reports “inaccurate” of the use of such a weapon.
