Moscow: In June of this year, the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, who led the rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin, is coming to light. A total of 10 people including 3 crew members were on board this private plane. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, was also on the passenger list, according to Russian emergency officials. According to media reports, the aircraft belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the private military company Wagner Group.
Russia’s official news agency Tass quoted emergency officials as saying that the crashed private plane had three pilots and seven passengers on board, all of whom have died. Russia’s civil aviation regulator ‘Rosavietsia’ said that Yevgeny Prigozhin has been included in the passenger list. The plane was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg and crashed in the Tver area, about 100 km from the capital Moscow.
Wagner chief Prigozhin rebelled against Putin
According to flight data, the private plane took off from Moscow on Wednesday evening and lost contact with the ground control room minutes later. Prigozhin’s private army, the Wagner Group, which fought alongside the Russian military in Ukraine, launched a brief armed uprising against Russia’s political and military leadership in June. Meanwhile, Wagner’s army occupied the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, also a military headquarters.
On 24 June, Yevgeny Prigozhin announced in a video message that he was marching on Moscow with 25,000 troops. He directly challenged Vladimir Putin and said that Russia was going to have a new president within 24 hours. This rebellion of the Wagner group came to light due to differences with the Russian military commanders. However, in less than 24 hours, Yevgeny Prigozhin was frozen and the armed rebellion of the Wagner group ended. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko played an important role in ending the rebellion.
Putin called Prigozhin’s act an unforgivable act of treason
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the actions of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group unforgivable and treasonous in a message after the incident. The Kremlin said Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus and his fighters would either retire, accompany him or join the Russian military. After this, Yevgeny Prigozhin went to Belarus with his boys. The death of the Wagner chief in a plane crash is being looked at with suspicion.
The Gray Zone, a Telegram channel linked to Wagner, said the Embraer plane was shot down by air defense forces in the Tver area north of Moscow, the BBC reported. Gray Zone said locals heard two explosions and saw two plumes of smoke in the air before the crash. At the same time, Russia’s official news agency Tass reported that a fire broke out as the plane hit the ground. Only four bodies have been found so far.
,
Tags: Russia, Ukraine war, Vladimir Putin, Wagner Group
First published: August 24, 2023, 06:30 IST