Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is feared dead after a plane – with his name on the passenger list – crashed in Russia tonight, two months after his failed coup attempt against Putin.
The plane was seen in a video falling out of the sky in the Bologovsky district in the Tver region. The burning wreckage was later seen in a field, and images on social media purport to show the plane engulfed in flames.
It was initially unknown if Wagner chief Prigozhin – known as Putin’s chef and with longstanding links to the Kremlin dictator – was on board, but it has since been reported that the passenger list included his name.
A report from Rosaviatsiya – the Russian aviation agency – said Prigozhin was among the passengers – but despite AfP initially confirming the death, it is now being reported the exact identities of those killed are unknown.
Russian authorities have said a business jet crash in Russia killed 10 people.
Witnesses to the crash heard a loud bang before they saw the jet ‘fall from the sky’.
Images shared on social media purport to show the burning wreckage of the plane in a field in the Tver region.
Plumes of black smoke can be seen billowing into the sky, with the wreck completely engulfed in flames.
The number 795 can just about be made out on the edge of the scrap pile, which matches the plane linked to the ex-military leader.
Prigozhin, 62, has been increasingly careful since he led a coup against Putin’s regime exactly two months ago.
After its failure, he had been warned that his life was in danger. He was known to take huge care over his security.
Russia’s state news agency Tass quoted emergency officials as saying that the plane carried three pilots and seven passengers.
A channel linked to Wagner said the plane had been shot down by air defences, but this has not yet been confirmed.
But sources close to him said that while the aircraft belonged to him, he usually flew on another aircraft.
Earlier this week a video apparently showed him in Africa vowing to make Russia great by deploying his Wagner troops on the continent.
Former Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak said: ‘My sources report that an Embraer plane belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin has now crashed in the Tver region.
