Wagner chief on board plane that crashed in Russia: officials

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the passengers on a plane that crashed Wednesday in Russia, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority.

Ten people on board the plane were reportedly killed. State-run media outlets reported the plane crashed in the Tver region, about 100 miles northwest of Moscow and that Prigozhin was listed among the passengers.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency publicly confirmed later on Wednesday that Prigozhin was a passenger on the flight along with Wagner Group commander Dmitry Utkin.

Russian emergency authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash.

The plane was a business jet on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg, according to reports.

President Biden has been briefed on the reported plane crash in Russia, according to the White House. He is currently on vacation in Lake Tahoe, Calif.

“We have seen the reports,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, wrote on X. “If confirmed, no one should be surprised.”

The crash comes two months after Prigozhin’s so-called “March of Justice” aiming to topple Moscow’s military leadership.

Russian independent news outlets had reported Prigozhin may have been on another plane but are now reporting that Prigozhin died.

Wagner-affiliated channels are mourning his death.

“The head of the Wagner Group, Hero of Russia, a true patriot of his Motherland, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia,” the general Wagner Group account posted on Telegram. “But even in Hell he will be the best!”

A video shared by prominent Russian blogger Rybar showed the crashed jet falling out of the air after two explosions, which Rybar claimed “indicates the work of air defense.”

Wagner-affiliated Telegram accounts claimed the explosions indicate the jet was shot down and implied it may have been the work of Russia’s military.

Other videos circulating among Russian sources online show the jet splintered on a field, with several parts of the plane on fire.

Earlier this week, Prigozhin was seen a video posted on his Telegram channel, in which he appeared to be in Africa to discuss the operations of his private military company on the continent.

The news comes amid Prigozhin’s increasingly strained relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus in June following a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin’s military leaders.

The Wagner boss had marched on Moscow with thousands of mercenary fighters behind his back after decrying what he called widespread corruption among the Russian elite and failures on the part of the Russian Defense Ministry in executing the war in Ukraine. 

In Ukraine, the Wagner Group lost up to 20,000 soldiers in the monthslong siege of Bakhmut alone, by Prigozhin’s claims.

Prigozhin’s march was halted just over 100 miles from Moscow after Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko brokered a deal for terrorism charges to be dropped against Prigozhin, who agreed to be exiled in Belarus.

But Prigozhin has been seen in Russia since the apparent exile, even meeting with Putin in July. In public addresses, Putin has slammed the “organizers” of the rebellion without naming Prigozhin and allowed Wagner fighters to escape charges.

Still, the Russian president has moved to strip Wagner Group of heavy weapons. Putin also implied that Prigozhin’s Concord catering company would be investigated for charging the government while being funded by the Kremlin.

Both President Biden and CIA chief Bill Burns have suggested that Prigozhin should be wary of assassination attempts following the mutiny.

“If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate; I’d keep my eye on my menu,” Biden quipped at a news conference in Helsinki in July.

Burns had said that Putin was trying to “buy time” as he decides how to respond to the Wagner chief’s provocation.

“Putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best-served cold,” Burns said last month at a security conference. “In my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback so I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution for this.”

Prigozhin, who founded Wagner Group in 2014, has a long history with Putin. He is known as “Putin’s chef,” for his catering contracts at the Kremlin, and he also founded the infamous Internet Research Agency, which meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Updated: 4:59 p.m.