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Former Putin ally led a mutiny against Kremlin just two months before he died
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Wagner chief Prigozhin killed
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has today been confirmed dead in a plane crash near Moscow on Wednesday.
Russia‘s Investigation Committee said the results of genetic tests had confirmed the identities of the 10 people who died in a plane crash last Wednesday and they included the founder of the Wagner mercenary group.
Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, along with some of his top lieutenants, were on the list of those on board the plane that crashed north-west of Moscow, killing all those on board.
Western politicians and commentators have suggested, without presenting evidence, that Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed as punishment for the mutiny, which also represented the biggest challenge to Putin’s own rule since he came to power in 1999.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that such suggestions were “an absolute lie”. Asked whether Putin might attend Prigozhin’s funeral, Peskov said it was too early to say and also noted the president’s “busy schedule”.
It comes as a resurfaced clip of the Wagner leader talking about a ‘plane falling apart in the sky’ has resurfaced on social media.
Russia launched an overnight air attack against Ukraine on Sunday, sending missiles over other northern and central parts of the country, authorities said.
The Ukrainian military reported shooting down four cruise missiles out of up to eight total airborne targets detected, adding that the rest of the targets were “probably false”.
It also said there were no immediate reports of strikes.
The governor of Kyiv region, Ruslan Kravchenko, said two people had been wounded and 10 buildings damaged by falling missile debris in one unspecified area of the region.
“Thanks to the professional work of the air defence forces, there were no strikes on critical or residential infrastructure,” he said in a statement.
All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for about three hours early on Sunday before they were cleared at around 6 a.m. (0300 GMT).
This is the moment Russian officials confirmed the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash in Moscow
Russia‘s Investigation Committee said the results of genetic tests had confirmed the identities of the 10 people who died in a plane crash last Wednesday and they included the founder of the Wagner mercenary group.
The statement reads: As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular genetic examinations have been completed. According to their results, the identities of all 10 dead were established, they correspond to the list stated in the flight sheet.”
This is the moment Russian officials confirmed the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash in Moscow Russia‘s Investigation Committee said the results of genetic tests had confirmed the identities of the 10 people who died in a plane crash last Wednesday and they included the founder of the Wagner mercenary group. The statement reads: As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular genetic examinations have been completed. According to their results, the identities of all 10 dead were established, they correspond to the list stated in the flight sheet.”
Once a businessman with a catering empire friendly with Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin manoeuvred himself into a position so powerful that, as Russia’s war in Ukraine progressed, he could openly question his paymasters’ strategy.
The owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, the mercenary force that has fought some of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine – most notably the drawn-out pursuit of Bakhmut – the 62-year-old stepped into his most dangerous role yet this summer: preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership.
Now, two months after his men’s attempted uprising ended in uneasy peace talks, Prigozhin is dead in a plane crash just outside of Moscow.
Former convict, catering impresario and ally of Vladimir Putin became increasingly vocal critic of Kremlin’s defence chiefs during war in Ukraine
Boris Johnson has said that Vladimir Putin’s “mask is now fully off”, as world leaders and commentators continue to question his role in the death of Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The former prime minister has described the downing of the Wagner chief’s plane as “violent liquidation” and claimed that Putin was “being transformed before our eyes into an Asiatic despot”.
“I cannot think of another example of such ostentatious and uninhibited savagery by a world leader – not in our lifetimes,” he said.
The former Prime Minister said it would be ‘utterly fatuous’ to place any trust in the Russian leader
Yes, Prigozhin led a mutiny against Putin. But don’t let that cloud your thinking about a man who was nothing more than a monster and a tyrant who earned his apparent violent end, our international editor Chris Stevenson writes:
It is not surprising that Russian authorities have declared Yevgeny Prigozhin dead. Given the attempted mutiny he led with the Wagner mercenary group against Moscow, the assumption was that he may not be long for this world. When it comes to the iron-grip President Vladimir Putin has on his nation – if you come for the king, as the adage goes, you best not miss.
But as the speculation swirls about the end of Prigozhin and the embarrassment that Putin could not let stand, it can be easy to brush past the terrible things Progozhin’s mercenaries are believed to have done. Let’s get this straight, Prigozhin deserved the end that all signs point to him having met.
It is Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that pushed Prigozhin truly into the public consciousness, with the group having been at the vanguard of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war around the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Yes, Prigozhin led a mutiny against Putin. But don’t let that cloud your thinking about a man who was nothing more than a monster and a tyrant who earned his apparent violent end
A resurfaced clip of the Wagner leader who was killed in a plane crash has resurfaced on social media, stoking conspiracy theories about his demise.
In the 40-second clip, the Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin compared Russia’s trajectory in the war to a plane that will “fall apart in the air”.
The ominous comparison has now added fuel to fire in the theory the Wagner chief was killed the order of Russian president Vladimir Putin, after Prigozhin has been confirmed as one of the passengers on a private jet that crashed northwest of Moscow with no survivors on Wednesday.
‘He knew,’ Telegram users insist after old video appears to foreshadow Yevgeny Prigozhin’s fate
Yevgeny Prigozhin smiled as a crowd of adoring fans surrounded his black SUV on June 24 in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don and cheered him on.
“You rock!” fans shouted while taking selfies with the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, who was sitting in the vehicle after nightfall. “You’re a lion! Hang in there!”
Prigozhin and his masked, camouflage-clad fighters were leaving the city after a daylong mutiny against the country’s military leadership. President Vladimir Putin decried it as “treason” and vowed punishment, but then cut a deal not to prosecute Prigozhin. Beyond that, his fate looked uncertain.
The final two months of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s life are shrouded in mystery
Russia’s Investigative Committee has confirmed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash.
The committee said in a statement Sunday that after forensic testing, all 10 bodies recovered at the site of the crash were identified, and their identities “conform to the manifest.”
Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, along with some of his top lieutenants, were on the list of those on board the plane that crashed Wednesday.
Body identified during forensic testing after private jet crashed on Wednesday, Russia’s Investigative Committee said
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