A plane carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has crashed in Russia. The flight was carrying the warlord from Moscow to St Petersburg at the time of the crash.
Prigozhin’s Wagner group launched a failed coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin in June.
Is Yevgeny Prigozhin dead?
The plane was carrying 10 people onboard at the time of the crash, including three crew members. All of them have died in the crash, Russia’s emergency ministry said, according to state newswire RIA Novosti.
Also Read | Did Vladimir Putin’s popularity increase after Wagner’s coup? Charges against Yevgeny Prigozhin dropped
Russian officials said that a man with Prigozhin’s name was among the passengers. They refrained from elaborating further.
According to Daily Mail, the plane was seen in a video falling toward the ground in the Bologovsky district in the Tver region. The burning wreckage was spotted in a field later. The plane was an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet.
A loud bang was heard by people on the ground, news outlets reported. A channel linked to WAgner said that the plane had been shot down. This report has not been verified yet. Sources close to him said that the aircraft belonged to him. But he is known to frequent a different plane when he flew.
Prigozhin, 62, gained worldwide popularity after he led a coup against Putin’s regime two months ago. After the coup was short-lived, he was told that his life was in danger. As a result, it was a well known fact that he used to take huge care over his security.
He used body doubles as part of his elaborate security measures. He also took care not to go into high buildings for the fear of “accidents.”
