- Video Captures Plane Carrying Mercenary Leader Crashing
- Russian Authorities Confirm Presence of Wagner Group Leader
- Wagner Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Recent Activities and Video Message
The private aircraft, which is initially flying at a high altitude, appears to be completely out of control and enters a vertical dive just before crashing into a field, as seen from a distance.
A video has surfaced depicting the moment a plane carrying mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin plummeted towards the earth.
Following a trail of smoke, the aircraft spirals out of the atmosphere and towards the ground in the video.
The private aircraft, which is initially flying at a high altitude, appears to be completely out of control and enters a vertical dive just before crashing into a field, as seen from a distance.
Moments later, a thick black smoke plume rises from the collision site.
Momentarily, there are only a few clouds in the sky, and the weather appears to be excellent.
Another video depicts a burning aircraft fuselage on the ground.
The Russian Civil Aviation Authority verified the presence of Wagner Group leader Prigozhin and Wagner commander Dmitri Utkin.
Prigozhin was reportedly designated as a passenger on the private jet previously.
The flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg with three pilots and seven passengers made an emergency landing north of Moscow.
The TASS news agency reported that ten persons were on board, while the RIA news agency later reported that eight bodies were found at the crash site, citing emergency services.
Russian authorities claim that there were no survivors.
Wednesday evening, according to flight monitoring data, a private jet registered to Wagner and previously utilized by Prigozhin took off from Moscow and its transponder signal disappeared minutes later.
The aeroplane lost its signal in a remote location with no local airfields for landing.
On Monday, Prigozhin released his first video message since his failed mutiny in June.
The mercenary commander, who was dispatched to Belarus following his forces’ assault on Moscow, released video footage of himself speaking while wearing camouflage and brandishing a rifle.
According to the footage, Prigozhin was likely in Africa at the time. In the video, he discussed how Russia would “free” the continent.
Wagner was fighting terrorist organisations in the region, and Prigozhin said it wanted to expand in Africa.
He later provided details about Wagner’s recruitment in the video, which included a phone number for those interested in joining.
