Key Factors
- Genetic assessments verify Wagner chief Prigozhin’s loss of life in crash, ending hypothesis.
- Wagner founder and Prigozhin’s right-hand man Dmitry Utkin additionally among the many lifeless.
- The reason for the crash stays unclear as Russia investigates.
Russian investigators say genetic assessments have confirmed Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner mercenary group, was among the many 10 folks killed when his non-public jet crashed.
Russia’s aviation company had beforehand printed the names of all 10 folks on board the airplane that crashed within the Tver area northwest of Moscow on Wednesday.
They included , his right-hand man who helped discovered the Wagner group.
What did the investigators discover?
“As a part of the investigation of the airplane crash within the Tver area, molecular-genetic examinations have been accomplished,” Russia’s Investigative Committee mentioned in an announcement on the Telegram messaging app.
“In response to their outcomes, the identities of all 10 lifeless had been established. They correspond to the checklist said within the flight sheet.”
There had been some hypothesis, particularly on pro-Wagner Telegram channels, about whether or not Prigozhin – identified to take varied safety precautions in anticipation of a attainable try on his life – had actually been on the doomed flight.
Authorities have but to say what they imagine induced his non-public jet to fall from the sky.
The crash got here two months to the day after Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries staged a mutiny towards Russian army commanders through which they took management of a southern metropolis, Rostov, and superior in direction of Moscow earlier than turning round about 200 kilometres from the capital.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the June 23-24 mutiny as a treacherous “stab within the again”, however later met with Prigozhin within the Kremlin.
Individuals pay tribute to late head of Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin at a makeshift memorial in Moscow, on 27 August 2023. Supply: Getty / Natalia Kolesnikova
He despatched .
Western politicians and commentators have urged, with out presenting proof, that Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed as punishment for the mutiny, which additionally represented the most important problem to Putin’s personal rule since he got here to energy in 1999.
Requested whether or not Putin may attend Prigozhin’s funeral, Peskov mentioned it was too early to say and likewise famous the president’s “busy schedule”.
Wagner fighters performed a distinguished position within the preventing in jap Ukraine, particularly within the months-long siege of the town of Bakhmut, regardless of Prigozhin’s frequent, profanity-laced assaults on Russia’s army excessive command over their conduct of the warfare that culminated within the failed mutiny.
The Wagner fighters have now left Ukraine and a few have relocated to neighbouring Belarus below the phrases of a deal that ended their mutiny.
Some are anticipated to be absorbed into Russia’s armed forces however many will probably be offended over the sudden demise of the group’s founder who impressed a excessive diploma of loyalty amongst his males.
Putin paid a combined tribute to Prigozhin on Thursday, describing him as a “proficient businessman” but additionally as a flawed character who “made critical errors in life”.
