The leader of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, who led a short-lived rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin in June this year, was reportedly on the passenger list of a plane that crashed in Russia earlier today.
The crash is reported to have killed all ten passengers on board.
The Russian News Agency Tass reports that the name Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the list of passengers of the crashed flight.
The actual flight manifest is yet to be verified.
TASS also reports that the Federal Agency for Air Transport of Russia has initiated an investigation into the crash, confirming that the private Embraer aircraft was traveling en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it came down in Russia’s Tver region.
Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against the Russian Government during which he sharply criticized Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and the strategy of the country’s conventional army in that war.
His Wagner troops were heavily involved in the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin was last seen in a video posted to social media this week, purportedly somewhere in Africa, where Wagner is seeking to increase its influence.
Yevgeny Prigozhin in fatal plane crash:
