Wagner Boss Prigozhin Killed in Private Jet Crash North of Moscow, Says Russian State Media
by Oliver JJ Lane
Mercenary warlord and one-time insurrection leader against Vladimir Putin’s Russian government Yevgeny Prigozhin was aboard a private jet that crashed north of Moscow, killing all aboard, Russian state media says.
UPDATE 21:20 — According to a post on a Telegram channel linked to the mercenary Wagner Group, Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces officer in the GRU Russian military intelligence branch who reportedly went on to found PMC Wagner, died alongside the mercenary group’s commander, Yevgeny Prighozhin, in a plane crash inside Russia on Wednesday. The ‘Grey Zone’ channel said that Utkin “died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia.”
Utkin, who received four Orders of Courage of Russia, is reported to have used the call-sign ‘Wagner’ during his time in the Russian military in homage to German composer Richard Wagner. The call-sign would later be the basis for the name of the mercenary group he reportedly founded.
UPDATE 20:30 — A Telegram channel associated with the paramilitary Wagner Group, the ‘Grey Zone’, has claimed that Yevgeny Prigozhin was indeed killed in a plane crash outside Moscow on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the channel accused the Russian Air Force of shooting down the jet carrying the warlord, however, there has been no official confirmation on the cause of the crash at the time of this reporting.
The group said: “The assassination of Prigozhin would have catastrophic consequences. The people who gave the order do not understand the mood in the army and the morale at all.” It added: “Let this be a lesson to all. You always have to go to the end,” in a likely reference to Prighozhin’s failed coup attempt against the Kremlin.