2023-08-23 17:14:00
A plane with ten people believed to be on board crashed in Russia on Wednesday without leaving any survivors, and the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigojine, at the origin of a rebellion in June, is on the passenger list.
According to the Ria Novosti, TASS and Interfax agencies, referring to the Russian air transport agency Rossaviatsia, the name of Yevgeny Prigojine appears on the list of passengers of this plane which was to connect Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
War in Ukraine: “In six months either Prigozhin will be dead or there will be a second coup”
“There were ten people on board, including three crew members. According to the first information, all the people on board died”, indicated a little earlier on Telegram the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
According to him, this Embraer Legacy private plane crashed near the village of Kujenkino, in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow.
“The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry is carrying out search operations,” he said.
Yevgeny Prigojine, the unpredictable boss of the Wagner group and enemy of Putin
According to an emergency services official quoted by the Ria Novosti agency, the bodies of eight people have so far been found at the crash site.
Putin praises the soldiers
As operations continue, President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk in World War II, visiting this region of southwestern Russia, bordering Ukraine.
Without mentioning the crash, Mr. Putin saluted on stage in front of the crowd the Russian soldiers in Ukraine, who “are fighting with courage and determination”.
“Dedication to the homeland and loyalty to the military oath unite all participants in the special military operation,” he said, referring to the conflict in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin instigated a rebellion in June once morest the Russian General Staff and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, led by his men, who briefly captured military sites in southern Russia before to go to Moscow.
Vladimir Putin had called him a traitor, without saying his name.
Mr. Prigojine had quickly given up this mutiny, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine. It ended on the evening of June 24 with an agreement providing for Mr. Prigojine’s departure for Belarus, while his fighters might join him there, join the regular Russian army or return to civilian life.
Video in Africa
On Monday evening, the Wagner boss appeared in a video posted by groups close to Wagner on social media, where he claimed to be in Africa.
In a desert landscape and armed with an assault rifle, he said he was working to “make Russia even greater on all continents and Africa even more free”.
After the revolt, part of Wagner’s fighters went to Belarus, where they took part in the training of the armed forces of this country, an ally of Moscow.
For some reason never explained, the boss of Wagner seemed to come and go in Russia despite his status as an outcast, until he participated a few days following his revolt in a meeting at the Kremlin.
The whereregardings and activities of Yevgeny Prigojine were not known. Despite his mutiny, he had escaped all legal proceedings.
In Ukraine, Evguéni Prigojine distinguished himself during the long and bloody battle for Bakhmout, in the East, where his men, notably recruited from Russian prisons, captured the city in May at the cost of heavy losses. A “meat grinder”, he said himself.
It was during this battle that his conflict with senior Russian military officials escalated, with Mr. Prigozhin accusing them of incompetence and not delivering enough ammunition to him.
Wagner also has a presence in several African countries including the Central African Republic, Mali and Libya.
In July, Vladimir Putin assured that he had offered Wagner’s men to serve under the command of another person in the army, but that their leader, Yevgeny Prigojine, had refused the offer.
A particularly confusing situation
The Wagner group claims on the Telegram channel that a second plane would have turned around. Another plane carrying, according to them, Evgueni Prigojine, the boss of the Wagner group. “The second plane, which belongs to Yevgeny Prigozhin , turns around over the capital and goes to the airport. Despite the fact that many channels write that Prigozhin is dead, he was able to fly in another plane “.
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