Prigozhin confirmed aboard plane that crashed in Tver: Russian ATA
2 Min Read
Wagner Group CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin was aboard a private jet that crashed in Russia's Tver Region on Wednesday, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia.
-
Rescuers at the site of a plane crash near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver, on August 23, 2023 (AFP)
The Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia has confirmed Wagner Group private military company (PMC) leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was aboard the private jet that crashed on Wednesday.
Prigozhin's name was among the Embraer-135 (EBM-135BJ) passengers, in addition to Propustin Sergey, Makaryan Evgeniy, Totmin Aleksandr, Chekalov Valeriy, Utkin Dmitriy, and Matuseev Nikolay.
"Crew members: commander [pilot] Levshin Aleksei, second pilot Karimov Rustam, and flight attendant Raspopova Kristina," were also on board the flight, the agency detailed on Telegram.
Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed that a private plane on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in the Tver Region on Wednesday, announcing that the incident killed all 10 people aboard.
The US President has expressed he was "not sure" what caused the crash but revealed he was "not surprised" by the news.
He steered clear of pointing any fingers at Russian President Vladimir Putin when asked and carefully responded that he did not have enough facts to answer.
Just yesterday, Prigozhin announced his return to Africa to fight terrorism in a video clip.
"We work in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius," he said, adding, "The Wagner Group makes Russia great on all continents, makes Africa freer, and establishes justice."
On the evening of June 23, the Wagner Group took control of an army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia and marched toward Moscow the next day. Prigozhin claimed that his activities were in retaliation for the Defense Ministry's purported assault on his group's field camps, but the ministry denied this.
After speaking with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was acting at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin decided to put an end to the mutiny.
