2023-08-23 21:18:52
The Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has apparently died in a plane crash. The aviation authority Rozaviazia listed him, as well as the head of the Wagner group Dmitry Utkin, among the ten people on board the crashed plane. The Ministry of Civil Protection had previously said that according to initial knowledge there were no survivors. An official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death is not yet available.
There was also no statement from the government of President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin fell out of favor with Putin after the June 23-24 revolt he led.
According to Rozaviazia, the Embraer plane crashed north of Moscow in the Tver region. The machine was therefore on the flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg. A Telegram channel linked to the Wagner group said Prigozhin was dead. The “hero of Russia” and “true patriot” died “as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia,” according to a Gray Zone post , which initiates a targeted shooting down of the aircraft. “But even in Hell he will be the best!” The deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin – if confirmed – leave the Wagner group without clear leadership.
During the uprising in June, Prigozhin’s fighters took the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and then moved towards Moscow in order, according to their own statements, to clean up fraud, corruption and bureaucracy. Prior to this, Prigozhin had criticized the Russian military leadership for months, accusing, among other things, that the fighters deployed in Ukraine were not being adequately supplied with ammunition.
After the open uprising, Putin accused Prigozhin of treason on television and announced that anyone who took up arms against the army would be punished. The power struggle between Progozhin and Putin ended after two days mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Accordingly, Prigozhin agreed to go to Belarus. In return, no charges were brought against the mercenary leader in Russia. Prigozhin and his fighters were guaranteed impunity, government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time.
The Wagner mercenary group, founded by Prigozhin and Dmitri Utkin in 2014, has allowed Russia to indirectly participate in numerous conflicts such as those in Syria, Mali, Libya and the Central African Republic. In the Ukraine war, the fighters were an important support for the Russian army, especially on the eastern front.
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