Wagner leader Prigozhin presumed dead in plane crash

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is thought to have died in a plane crash in Russia. His name was on the passenger list of a private jet that crashed on Wednesday afternoon, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said.

“An investigation into the crash of the Embraer that took place in the Tver region has been initiated,” the agency said. “According to the passenger list, it included the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin.” 

The plane with 10 people on board, including three crew members, was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg and crashed in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow. There were no survivors, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said. ​ 

Mercenary group Wagner rebelled against the Russian army leadership in June over its handling of the war in Ukraine. The group took the city of Rostov and advanced towards Moscow, with president Vladimir Putin calling it an act of treason. The advance was halted 200 km from the capital after mediation by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. Prigozhin and his troops were thought to have been in Belarus since the rebellion. 

Prigozhin surfaced for the first time since that uprising in a video circulated on social media on Monday, where, against the backdrop of a desert landscape, he said he was in Africa.

^{Frame grab taken from a video on the Telegram account of razgruzka_vagnera on 22 August 2023, shows Yevgeny Prigozhin as he addresses the camera at an undisclosed location © HANDOUT / TELEGRAM / @ RAZGRUZKA_VAGNERA ​ / AFP}