(Photo by SERGEI ILNITSKY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN’s Roy Francis
1:53 PM – Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed among the passengers on a plane that crashed on Wednesday in the Tver region in Russia.
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BREAKING – SHOCKING: Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in plane crash. Other reports say plane was bombed in Russia. This is developing. He recently led what was described as a failed coup attempt against Vladimir Putin pic.twitter.com/plf4Xyr2hp
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) August 23, 2023
Reports from Russian state media state that all 10 passengers onboard the airplane were killed during the crash. The business jet was flying from the Russian capital to St. Petersburg when it crashed.
“Prigozhin was listed among the passengers, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency,” a post by TASS on Telegram said. “An investigation into the crash of the Embraer aircraft has been launched, the department noted.”
The plane was seen falling out of the sky in the Tver region, and the wreckage was later seen in a field with images on social media showing the plane engulfed in flames.
Russian aviation agency: Yevgeny Prigozhin was among passengers in the plane that crashed in Tver region of Russia.
That was predictable.
It will be interesting to find out who else was on board of that plane. By some information, Dmitriy Utkin was there as well.
Ten people… pic.twitter.com/RukDbDJCKc
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 23, 2023
Witnesses reportedly heard a loud bang before the plane “fell out of the sky.” Footage shared on social media later showed burning wreckage of the airplane in a field in the Tver region.
A video capturing Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private plane crash in Russia’s Tver Oblast was shared on Telegram by Russian media aggregator Baza on Aug. 23.
Video: Baza / Telegram pic.twitter.com/pSVcncYNwN
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 23, 2023
Prigozhin had led a coup against Putin’s regime in June, leading his forces from the frontlines in Ukraine to the outskirts of Moscow. He had marched the Wagner Group against Putin and his military officials after accusing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on his group’s field camps on the frontlines in Ukraine.
During the coup, Prigozhin had denied all claims of a mutiny or a rebellion and had said that his forces are on a “march for justice” with the aim of fighting “corruption, deceit and bureaucracy” among Russian military leaders.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had denounced the actions of Prigozhin at the time and said that what the group is doing is a “deadly threat to our statehood” and that there will be “tough actions” in response to the mutiny.
After the events in June, the criminal case and all charges against Prigozhin were dropped. The Kremlin had said that the charges were dropped after Putin had a three-hour meeting with Prigozhin and Wagner Group commanders.
The Federal Air Transport Agency has launched an investigation into the plane crash in the Tver region.
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