Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was on plane that crashed with no survivors, Russian aviation authority says – live
Wagner leader and chief commander Dmitry Utkin were onboard the crashed Embraer plane, according to Russian officials
- Russian aviation authority confirms Prigozhin was on crashed plane
- Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner group claims that Prigozhin has died
- Joe Biden says he's 'not surprised' by Prigozhin reports
- US president Joe Biden briefed about plane crash
- Summary
- Yevgeny Prigozhin listed as passenger on plane which crashed with no survivors, Russian aviation authority says
- Yevgeny Prigozhin reportedly in plane crash
- Unconfirmed reports suggest private jet linked to Wagner leader crashes in Tver region
- Ukraine says it destroyed a Russian anti-aircraft system on Crimean peninsula
- Four educational workers killed and four others injured in attack on school, says Ukraine
- Zelenskiy vows to end Russia’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula
- Summary of the day so far...
- Two killed in Russian attack on Ukrainian school, says interior minister
- Vladimir Putin addresses Brics summit in South Africa
- Russia names new airforce chief to replace Sergei Surovikin - reports
- UK support for Ukraine's nuclear fuel supply will help end its reliance on Russia, says Shapps
- Three dead in Belgorod drone strikes, says governor
- Ukraine says air defences shot down 11 of 20 drones launched by Russia overnight
- Russia attacks grain facilities in Ukraine's Danube region
- Three drones downed in Moscow region, says mayor
- Opening summary
Russian aviation authority confirms Prigozhin was on crashed plane
Rosaviatsia, the Russian Aviation Authority has confirmed that Russian mercenary chief Evgeny Prigozhin and Wagner chief commander Dmitry Utkin were on board the crashed Embraer plane, Reuters reports.
Guardian correspondent Pjotr Saur also tweeted the latest news:
The Wagner Group also wrote on its Telegram channel that Prigozhin “died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia.”
“But even in Hell he will be the best! Glory to Russia!” it added.
Here are some images coming through the newswires of the crash site:
Following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s reported death in the plane crash that killed several others, here is the Guardian’s Pete Beaumont’s analysis of what happens next to the Wagner mercenary group:
What is clear is that Wagner, as it was once constituted, is no more.
According to recent reports, hundreds of Wagner fighters who had been exiled to bases in Belarus had begun to leave that country, some dissatisfied with the lower levels of pay in that country, others relocating to work in west Africa. The force there reduced in numbers from over 5,000 by around a quarter.
In Russia itself, Wagner’s operations had been on something of a hiatus during the past two months as it appeared Prigozhin and his allies looked for a new role in the shadow of Putin’s displeasure.
And with Wagner out of Ukraine after deploying its fighters as cannon fodder in the battle for Bakhmut, perhaps the biggest question is whether it can continue in any viable form in the African states where it has been active.
Although names had been mentioned speculatively as possible replacements for Prigozhin who would meet with Kremlin approval, whether any of them will be capable of filling his shoes is far from certain.
For the full story, click here:
The Wall Street Journal has reported that president Joe Biden’s national security adivser Jake Sullivan spoke to a top aide of Russian president Vladimir Putin in June about Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny.
The Journal reports that Sullivan spoke with Yuri Ushakov, a former Russian Ambassador to Washington, according to officials.
“The purpose was to convey that the US had no involvement in the events and viewed them as a domestic matter. The aim, they said, was to distance the US from the affair and avoid any further escalation, officials said,” the Journal reports.
Russian aviation authority confirms Prigozhin was on crashed plane
Rosaviatsia, the Russian Aviation Authority has confirmed that Russian mercenary chief Evgeny Prigozhin and Wagner chief commander Dmitry Utkin were on board the crashed Embraer plane, Reuters reports.
Guardian correspondent Pjotr Saur also tweeted the latest news:
The Wagner Group also wrote on its Telegram channel that Prigozhin “died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia.”
“But even in Hell he will be the best! Glory to Russia!” it added.
Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner group claims that Prigozhin has died
A Telegram channel associated with the Wagner group said Wednesday that Prigozhin has died, Reuters reported.
From Reuters:
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is dead, a Telegram channel affiliated with his Wagner mercenary group reported on Wednesday.
“The head of the Wagner Group, a Hero of Russia, a true patriot of his Motherland Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia,” a post in the Grey Zone channel said.
“But even in Hell, he will be the best! Glory to Russia!”
Prigozhin was named on a passenger list of the plane that crashed, AFP reported, citing Russian news agencies.
The head of the Wagner group was listed as one of 10 passengers aboard a plane that reportedly crashed on Wednesday.
“The plane that crashed in the Tver Region listed Yevgeny Prigozhin among its passengers, (Russia’s aviation agency) Rosaviatsia said,” TASS news agency reported, AFP reports.
Joe Biden says he's 'not surprised' by Prigozhin reports
Joe Biden has commented on the plane crash involving Prigozhin, saying that he is “not surprised” by reports.
Biden spoke to reporters about the reported plane crash while leaving an exercise class in Lake Tahoe, where he is currently vacationing with family, Bloomberg News reported.
“I don’t know for fact what happened, but I am not surprised,” Biden said, Bloomberg News reported.
“I don’t know for fact what happened, but I am not surprised,” @POTUS tells reporters when asked about the plane crash as he departed an exercise class in Lake Tahoe, where he is vacationing with his family https://t.co/mAqkq3rlR7
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) August 23, 2023
Biden added: “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer. I’ve been working out for the last hour and a half.”
Officials from Russia’s emergencies ministry have said that eight bodies were found at the scene of the reported plane that crashed.
From journalist Leonid Ragozin:
Russian emergencies ministry said there were 10 people on board Prigozhin’s plane including the crew. RIA’s latest report says eight bodies have been found at the scene.
— Leonid ХВ Ragozin (@leonidragozin) August 23, 2023
Details on the crash are still emerging.
US national security spokesperson Adrienne Watson confirmed that US officials have seen the reports, telling Reuters:
“We have seen the reports. If confirmed, no one should be surprised.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reports Kaja Kallas, prime minister of Estonia, telling CNN:
“If true, it shows [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will eliminate opponents and that scares anyone who is thinking of expressing opinion different than his.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted following reports of the crash, saying, “Regarding Prigozhin: we have to wait for the fog of war to clear.”
“However, it is clear that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own beastly fear - the very one that nullified him in June 2023 - and was waiting for the moment. It is also obvious that Prigozhin signed a special death sentence for himself the moment he believed in the strange “guarantees of Lukashenko” and in the no less absurd “honest word” of Putin,” Podolyak wrote, referring to Belarusian president Alexandder Lukashenko.
“The show-stopping removal of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after the coup attempt is a signal from Putin to Russian elites ahead of the 2024 elections: “Fight! Disloyalty equals death,” he added.
US president Joe Biden briefed about plane crash
US president Joe Biden has been briefed about the plane crash, Reuters reports the White House saying.
The BBC has released footage of what appears to be the crash site.
The video shows what appears to be a plane falling from the sky and flames engulfing the plane in a field.
Видео с места крушения самолета, на борту которого, как сообщает Росавиация, был и Евгений Пригожин. pic.twitter.com/73f5efwYL4
— bbcrussian (@bbcrussian) August 23, 2023
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed north of Moscow and killed 10 people onboard.
Summary
The Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed north of Moscow and killed ten people on board.
Russia has relieved Gen Sergei Surovikin of his command of the Russian aerospace forces, in the highest-level sacking yet of a military commander after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s abortive mutiny in June.
A Russian military helicopter has landed in Ukraine, reportedly after the pilot was convinced to defect in a six-month intelligence operation.
Vladimir Putin has defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sought to rally leaders of the Brics nations meeting in South Africa to the Kremlin’s side.
Four educational workers were killed and four other people were hurt in a Russian attack on a school in the city of Romny in north-eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said.
The US has approved the possible $500m sale to Taiwan of infrared search and track systems for F-16 fighter jets, as well as other equipment, Reuters reports, citing the Pentagon.
Ukraine has said on Wednesday it destroyed a Russian S-400 anti-aircraft system on the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, Reuters reports.
A Moscow court will decide on Thursday whether to extend the pre-trial detention of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a court spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday.
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? This profile by Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer has some answers.
At the height of Russia’s first, covert invasion of eastern Ukraine, in summer 2014, a group of senior Russian officials gathered at the defence ministry’s headquarters, an imposing Stalin-era building on the banks of the Moskva River.
They were there to meet Yevgeny Prigozhin, a middle-aged man with a shaven head and a coarse tone whom many in the room knew only as the person responsible for army catering contracts.
Now, Prigozhin had a different kind of demand. He wanted land from the defence ministry that he could use for the training of “volunteers” who would have no official links to the Russian army but could still be used to fight Russia’s wars.
Many in the ministry did not like Prigozhin’s manner, but he made it clear that this was no ordinary request. “The orders come from Papa,” he told the defence officials, using a nickname for Vladimir Putin designed to emphasise his closeness to the president.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner paramilitary chief who launched an armed mutiny in June, was on a private jet that crashed in the Tver region near Moscow, killing all 10 onboard, Russian officials have said.
Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation authority, said Prigozhin was one of the passengers listed in the manifest as being onboard the Embraer business jet that crashed on Wednesday evening.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but Prigozhin’s longstanding feud with the military and the armed uprising he led in June would give ample motive to the Russian state for revenge. Media channels linked to Wagner quickly suggested that a Russian air defence missile had shot down the plane.
The Embraer jet crashed in the Tver region while flying between Moscow and St Petersburg. Video posted to the internet apparently showed the small jet trailing a plume of smoke before slamming into the ground and erupting in flames.
The jet reportedly had the tail number RA-02795. The plane has been under US sanctions since 2019 because of its connection to Prigozhin. The Wagner chief has been reported to use the plane, including shortly after his failed mutiny, when the plane departed from St Petersburg to Belarus on the morning of 27 June.
Associated Press’ full report has confirmed that a private jet crash has killed all 10 people on board, Russian emergency officials have said.
The mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list, officials said, but it wasn’t immediately clear if he was on board.
Associated Press reports:
Unconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company.
Russia’s civilian aviation regulator, Rosaviatsia, said Prigozhin was on the passenger list. However, it was not immediately clear if he had boarded the flight.
Russia’s state news agency Tass cited emergency officials as saying that the plane carried three pilots and seven passengers. The authorities said they were investigating the crash, which occurred in the Tver region more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Moscow.
Prigozhin, whose private military force Wagner fought alongside Russia’s regular army in Ukraine, mounted a short-lived armed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in late June. The Kremlin said he would be exiled to Belarus, and his fighters would either retire, follow him there, or join the Russian military.
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