On Wednesday, state-run media in Russia reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner group instigated that a mutiny against the Russian army in June, was a passenger on the crashed jet.
According to Russia’s aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, the plane that crashed in the Tver Region had Yevgeny Prigozhin among its passengers, according to sources from TASS, RIA Novosti, and Interfax.
There were three crew members among the 10 passengers. All individuals on board died, according to preliminary information. The Russian emergency situation ministry had earlier stated.
The ministry made an announcement at around 1700 GMT stating that a “private Embraer Legacy aircraft going from Moscow to Saint Petersburg crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region.” It declared that search efforts were being carried out.
Videos of the jet wreckage burning in a field were uploaded on Telegram accounts connected to Wagner, but AFP was unable to independently verify them.
In June, Prigozhin oversaw a brief uprising against the Russian professional army. Thousands of hired guns moved from southern Russia to Moscow with the intention of overthrowing the military establishment.
Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, brokered an arrangement that called for Prigozhin and several of his men to go to Belarus’ neighbor.
In the days following Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in April 2014, Wagner was first observed in action in eastern Ukraine, shortly after a separatist struggle there erupted. Despite considerable proof to the contrary, Russia at the time denied assigning its own soldiers and weapons. Moscow had some level of defensibility thanks to the private Wagner army.
Role of Wagner in Ukraine
Wagner became more prominent in the Ukraine war when regular Russian soldiers sustained large casualties and lost land in humiliating reverses.
Prigozhin recruited soldiers by visiting Russian jails and offering them pardons if they made it through a six-month period serving with Wagner in the front lines.
He stated in the May interview that he had enlisted 50,000 prisoners, with 35,000 of them always on the front lines. In addition, he claimed that the struggle for Bakhmut cost him more than 20,000 troops, half of whom were prisoners.
According to U.S. estimates, Wagner had 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 40,000 prisoners and 10,000 contractors.
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