The head of Wagner’s mercenaries, Evgeny Prigozhin, died this Wednesday when his plane crashed over the Russian region of Tver, north of Moscow. Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on the plane, the Russian Aviation Authority has confirmed. His number two, Dimitri Utkin, was also on board. The Wagner group has given him up for dead. “The hero of Russia, the true patriot of his homeland, died as a result of the actions of the traitors of Russia. But even in hell, he will be the best!”, read a message on Telegram from the Gray Zone Channel It belongs to the mercenaries.
The plane, en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Prigozhin’s hometown, was carrying seven passengers and three crew members, TASS reported. According to the Mash and Baza channels, the terrorist attack on board is considered a possible cause of the accident. The special services have opened an investigation. In addition, various media reports that two loud explosions were heard in the sky during the flight.
“An investigation has been launched into the plane crash that occurred this afternoon in the Tver region. According to the list of passengers, among them are the name and surname of Evgeny Prigozhin,” the Rosaviatsiya department said shortly before.
On board the crashed plane was also his deputy, Dimitri Utkin. Also, Prigozhin’s cameraman, an assistant from the Wagner group and his bodyguard. A source from the ultra-conservative Tsargrad TV channel claims that the bodies of Prigozhin and Wagner commander Dimitri Utkin were “preliminarily identified”.
Prigozhin’s death would not be a surprise to anyone,” the White House said earlier. “Few things happen in Russia without Putin’s knowledge,” US President Joe Biden added for his part.
The Gray Zone Telegram channel, close to Wagner, claims that Prigozhin’s plane was shot down by air defense fire. The town of Kuzhenkino, in the area where the jet crashed, is only 50 kilometers from the residence of Vladimir Putin in Valdai, who at almost the same time was participating in an official ceremony to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, one of the most important of the Second World War. In his speech in that region, bordering Ukraine, Putin praised those who “fight with courage and determination.” “
After learning about the event, those close to Prigozhin confirmed that he could not contact him. The mercenary boss flew to Russia from Africa today, accompanied by the entire Wagner management team, according to Russian media. From his environment they reacted to the first news: “It will be a miracle if he is on another plane.”
Eight bodies were found at the accident site; almost all suffer severe burns; DNA testing will most likely be necessary to establish their identities.
The plane was an Embraer Legacy 600. It disappeared from radar at an altitude of 8,500 meters, its speed was approximately 950 kilometers per hour. At 6:20 p.m. (5:30 p.m. Madrid time) the air traffic controllers tried to contact the crew but to no avail.
The governor of the Tver region, Igor Rudenya, took control of the situation after the event. As clarified in the region’s government, law enforcement officers and the Ministry of Emergency Situations went to the place to establish the details of the incident and also specify the number of deaths.
Prigozhin, 62, whose private Wagner militia helped Russian forces in Ukraine, led a failed armed rebellion against the Kremlin and the military hierarchy last June. After the Belarusian president, Aleksanser Lukashenko, mediated in the conflict, Wagner’s boss agreed to withdraw most of his mercenaries. And last July, it was Vladimir Putin himself who offered fighters the chance to serve in the Russian army.
The Russian president has always played tricks with his mercenaries. The official government position for years was: “We have no responsibility for Wagner.” But with Prigozhin’s ‘fall’ from grace, Putin lashed out before the cameras by asserting that for years the Kremlin had ‘paid’ him large sums.
The Wagners obey badly, but die very well. In March, the UK Ministry of Defense estimated that Wagner had 50,000 fighters in Ukraine. Prigozhin himself said in May that he had 35,000 fighters at the front. Additionally, he was allowed to recruit 50,000 convicts from jails.
After the failed rebellion against the Kremlin, the group of mercenaries reportedly restarted its operations in Africa. This same week, Prigozhin had shared a recruitment video on social networks in which he said that Wagner makes “Russia even bigger on all continents.”
