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There was no immediate comment over the crash from the [[Kremlin]] or from Putin, who was at an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the [[Battle of Kursk]] when news of the incident broke out.<ref name="times"/>
There was no immediate comment over the crash from the [[Kremlin]] or from Putin, who was at an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the [[Battle of Kursk]] when news of the incident broke out.<ref name="times"/>


In response to news of Prigozhin's apparent death, officials from the United States, including [[United States National Security Council]] spokeswoman Adrienne Watson and President [[Joe Biden]], remarked that it did not come as a "surprise". When asked about the attribution of responsibility, Biden added, "There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don't know enough to know the answer."<ref>{{cite news |date=24 August 2023 |title=Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin 'on board' jet that crashed in Russia |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/private-plane-crashes-in-russia-with-wagner-group-chief-on-board |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=[[Aljazeera]] |language=en |archive-date=24 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823185802/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/private-plane-crashes-in-russia-with-wagner-group-chief-on-board |url-status=live }}</ref> [[CIA]] Director [[William J. Burns (diplomat)|William J. Burns]] commented that "revenge is a dish Putin prefers served cold".<ref name="bbc1"/>
In response to news of Prigozhin's apparent death, officials from the United States, including [[United States National Security Council]] spokeswoman Adrienne Watson and President [[Joe Biden]], remarked that it did not come as a "surprise". When asked about the attribution of responsibility, Biden added, "There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don't know enough to know the answer."<ref>{{cite news |date=24 August 2023 |title=Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin 'on board' jet that crashed in Russia |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/private-plane-crashes-in-russia-with-wagner-group-chief-on-board |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=[[Aljazeera]] |language=en |archive-date=23 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823185802/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/private-plane-crashes-in-russia-with-wagner-group-chief-on-board |url-status=live }}</ref> [[CIA]] Director [[William J. Burns (diplomat)|William J. Burns]] commented that "revenge is a dish Putin prefers served cold".<ref name="bbc1"/>


[[Mykhailo Podolyak]], an adviser to Ukrainian President [[Volodymyr Zelenskyy]], called Prigozhin's apparent death a "demonstrative elimination" and a signal from Putin to Russian elites ahead of the 2024 presidential elections against disloyalty. Estonian Prime Minister [[Kaja Kallas]] called the crash a reminder of Putin's ability to eliminate opponents and scare off dissent, while Polish Foreign Minister [[Zbigniew Rau]], said that those who threatened Putin’s power do not "die naturally” and expressed heavy doubts about the crash being accidental.<ref>{{cite news |date=24 August 2023 |title=World reaction to possible death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/world-reaction-to-possible-death-of-wagner-chief-yevgeny-prigozhin |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=[[Aljazeera]] |language=en}}</ref> The French government expressed "reasonable doubts” about the cause of the crash, and added that Prigozhin was "the man who did Putin's dirty work" and left behind "mass graves" in Africa, Ukraine, and Russia.<ref>{{cite news |date=24 August 2023 |title=France has 'reasonable doubts' over Wagner's Prigozhin plane crash: Spokesman |url=https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/08/24/France-has-reasonable-doubts-over-Wagner-s-Prigozhin-plane-crash-Spokesman |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=[[al-Arabiya]] |language=en}}</ref>
[[Mykhailo Podolyak]], an adviser to Ukrainian President [[Volodymyr Zelenskyy]], called Prigozhin's apparent death a "demonstrative elimination" and a signal from Putin to Russian elites ahead of the 2024 presidential elections against disloyalty. Estonian Prime Minister [[Kaja Kallas]] called the crash a reminder of Putin's ability to eliminate opponents and scare off dissent, while Polish Foreign Minister [[Zbigniew Rau]], said that those who threatened Putin’s power do not "die naturally” and expressed heavy doubts about the crash being accidental.<ref>{{cite news |date=24 August 2023 |title=World reaction to possible death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/world-reaction-to-possible-death-of-wagner-chief-yevgeny-prigozhin |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=[[Aljazeera]] |language=en}}</ref> The French government expressed "reasonable doubts” about the cause of the crash, and added that Prigozhin was "the man who did Putin's dirty work" and left behind "mass graves" in Africa, Ukraine, and Russia.<ref>{{cite news |date=24 August 2023 |title=France has 'reasonable doubts' over Wagner's Prigozhin plane crash: Spokesman |url=https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/08/24/France-has-reasonable-doubts-over-Wagner-s-Prigozhin-plane-crash-Spokesman |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=[[al-Arabiya]] |language=en}}</ref>


The [[National Resistance Center of Ukraine]] reported that convoys of Wagner personnel and vehicles where seen leaving their bases in [[Belarus]] and heading towards the Russian border, with the [[Special Operations Forces (Belarus)|Belarusian Special Operations Forces]] attempting to intercept them.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ukraine says Wagner convoys appear to be heading to Russia |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774 |website=[[BBC]] |access-date=24 August 2023 |archive-date=24 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823231855/https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774 |url-status=live }}</ref>
The [[National Resistance Center of Ukraine]] reported that convoys of Wagner personnel and vehicles where seen leaving their bases in [[Belarus]] and heading towards the Russian border, with the [[Special Operations Forces (Belarus)|Belarusian Special Operations Forces]] attempting to intercept them.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ukraine says Wagner convoys appear to be heading to Russia |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774 |website=[[BBC]] |access-date=24 August 2023 |archive-date=23 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823231855/https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66599774 |url-status=live }}</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 09:40, 24 August 2023

2023 Tver plane crash
The aircraft involved in the crash, pictured in 2022 at Pulkovo Airport
Crash
Date23 August 2023 (2023-08-23)
WebsiteKuzhenkino, Tver Oblast, Russia
Aircraft
Aircraft typeEmbraer Legacy 600
Call signRA02795
RegistrationRA-02795
Flight originMoscow
DestinationSaint Petersburg
Passengers7
Crew3
Fatalities10
Survivors0

On 23 August 2023, an Embraer Legacy 600, reportedly en route from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, crashed, killing ten people, including three crew members.[1] The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency confirmed via Telegram that among the list of passengers were two leaders of the Wagner Group, namely Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin.[1][2][3][4] The crash took place in the aftermath of the Wagner Group rebellion.

Incident

According to Flightradar24 data, the Embraer Legacy 600 was airborne by 15:00 UTC. At approximately 15:11 it had ascended to an altitude of 28,000 ft (8,500 m), after which no more data was recorded.[5][6]

The aircraft crashed near Kuzhenkino in Tver Oblast,[7] approximately 60 miles (100 km) north of its departure point in Moscow.[8] Video footage of the crash displayed the aircraft in an apparent flat spin just before impacting the ground. It seemed to be missing either its vertical stabilizer[9][10] or one of its wings.[11]

The aircraft is believed to be Yevgeny Prigozhin's personal aircraft; however, certain Russian media outlets[which?] suggest ownership by MNT-Aero LLC, a corporate transportation firm.[12][13]

A Telegram channel associated with the Wagner Group called "Grey Zone" reported that the jet was downed by Russian air defenses. The channel claimed that local residents near the crash site heard two loud noises before the incident and observed two vapour trails.[14] Likewise, a Russian government source told The Moscow Times that the possibility of a shootdown existed, given the crash site's proximity to Vladimir Putin's residence in Valdai, which hosted four divisions of S-300 missile systems.[15] However, this assertion was contested due to the lack of visible missile trails in the released footage.[16] All ten passengers' remains were successfully recovered.[17]

Passengers and crew

File:Prigo and Utkin.png
Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) and Dmitry Utkin (right) were killed in the crash.

The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency released the official passenger list of the plane. Of the ten individuals listed on the flight, seven were passengers:[18]

  • Yevgeny Prigozhin: The founder, leader, and spokesmen for the Wagner group.[19]
  • Dmitry Utkin: The leader of Wagner's military operations, and who the group was named after.[a][19]
  • Valery Chekalov: The leader of Wagner's security and foreign logistics.[19]
  • Sergei Propustin: Wagner veteran and officer.[19][20]
  • Nikolai Matyuseev: Wagner veteran and officer.[19][20]
  • Yevgeny Makaryan: Prigozhin's bodyguard.[19][20]
  • Alexander Totmin: Prigozhin's bodyguard.[19][20]

And three were crew members:

  • Aleksei Levshin: Pilot.[21]
  • Rustam Karimov: Co-pilot.[21]
  • Kristina Raspopova: Flight attendant.[21]

Prigozhin, Utkin, and Chekalov all held leadership positions within the Russian private military company Wagner Group, a mercenary organization that had briefly rebelled against the Russian government two months earlier. Prigozhin's open defiance of Putin's regime, despite his previous role as a prominent ally, along with the relatively subdued manner in which the rebellion was resolved through negotiations allowing Prigozhin to evade punishment, had led analysts to regard him as a "dead man walking".[22][23] On the day of the crash, Prigozhin was reported to have just returned from a trip to Africa.[15]

Investigation

After the crash was reported, the Ministry of Emergency Situations initiated an investigation into the incident. Additionally, authorities "opened a criminal case on violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport."[24]

Reactions

The disaster's coverage was confined to a brief 30-second report on that evening's edition of Vremya, the flagship news program of the state television channel, Channel One. Prigozhin's press secretary likewise declined to comment on the incident. At Wagner Center in Saint Petersburg, a spontaneous shrine emerged, adorned with flowers and candles.[25] The windows of the center were lit up in the shape of a cross.[15]

There was no immediate comment over the crash from the Kremlin or from Putin, who was at an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk when news of the incident broke out.[15]

In response to news of Prigozhin's apparent death, officials from the United States, including United States National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson and President Joe Biden, remarked that it did not come as a "surprise". When asked about the attribution of responsibility, Biden added, "There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don't know enough to know the answer."[26] CIA Director William J. Burns commented that "revenge is a dish Putin prefers served cold".[14]

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called Prigozhin's apparent death a "demonstrative elimination" and a signal from Putin to Russian elites ahead of the 2024 presidential elections against disloyalty. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called the crash a reminder of Putin's ability to eliminate opponents and scare off dissent, while Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, said that those who threatened Putin’s power do not "die naturally” and expressed heavy doubts about the crash being accidental.[27] The French government expressed "reasonable doubts” about the cause of the crash, and added that Prigozhin was "the man who did Putin's dirty work" and left behind "mass graves" in Africa, Ukraine, and Russia.[28]

The National Resistance Center of Ukraine reported that convoys of Wagner personnel and vehicles where seen leaving their bases in Belarus and heading towards the Russian border, with the Belarusian Special Operations Forces attempting to intercept them.[29]

References

  1. ^ Utkin's Nom de guerre was "Wagner"
  1. ^ a b Seddon, Max (23 August 2023). "Yevgeny Prigozhin was passenger on crashed plane, Russian officials say". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.(subscription required)
  2. ^ "Russia-Ukraine War: Prigozhin Listed as Passenger on Plane That Crashed, Killing All Aboard". New York Times. 23 August 2023. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  3. ^ "Росавиация". Telegram. Federal Air Transport Agency. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  4. ^ Binns, Daniel (23 August 2023). "Wagner Group commander Dmitry Utkin was on plane that crashed north of Moscow, Russian civil aviation authority says". Sky News. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  5. ^ "RA-02795". flightradar24.com. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  6. ^ Petchenik, Ian (23 August 2023). "Russian Legacy 600 crashes near Tver". Flightradar24 Blog. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  7. ^ Mordowanec, Nick (23 August 2023). "Wagner Chief Prigozhin Reported Dead After Russian Forces Shoot Down Plane". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  8. ^ Binding, Lucia (23 August 2023). "Ten killed in private jet crash north of Moscow - Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin 'on passenger list'". Sky News. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  9. ^ "Ten Dead After Crash Of Plane Belonging To Wagner Group; Prigozhin On Passenger List". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 23 August 2023. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  10. ^ @echofm_online (23 August 2023). "Самолёт, который разбился в Тверской области, принадлежит Евгению Пригожину, утверждают издание Baza и журналистка Ксения Собчак. На борту бизнес-джета Embraer, как утверждается, были 7 человек, они погибли. Видео: соцсети" (Tweet) (in Russian) – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Skinner, Anna (23 August 2023). "Wagner releases video of plane crash that reportedly killed Prigozhin". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  12. ^ Smith, Benedict (23 August 2023). "Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in plane crash near Moscow says Russia - live updates". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  13. ^ "Росавиация назвала владельца разбившегося под Тверью самолета". РИА Новости (in Russian). 23 August 2023. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  14. ^ a b Gardner, Frank; Greenall, Robert; Lukiv, Jaroslav (23 August 2023). "Wagner boss Prigozhin killed in plane crash in Russia". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  15. ^ a b c d "Plane Carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin Crashes in Russia". The Moscow Times. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  16. ^ "Крушение самолета Евгения Пригожина Бизнесмен значился в списке пассажиров, но был ли он на борту — неизвестно. Главное". Meduza (in Russian). Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  17. ^ "Yevgeny Prigozhin latest: Wagner boss on passenger list of crashed plane - Russian agencies". BBC News. 23 August 2023. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  18. ^ "Passenger plane crashes in Russia, Wagner chief Prigozhin possibly on board". Novaya Gazeta Europe. 23 August 2023. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g Stepanenko, Kateryna; Bailey, Riley; Wolkov, Nicole; Evans, Angelica; Mappes, Grace; Kagan, Frederick W. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 23, 2023". Institute for the Study of War. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  20. ^ a b c d Knox, Brady (24 August 2023). "Who were the other passengers aboard Prigozhin's crashed plane?". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  21. ^ a b c Balachuk, Iryna. "Prigozhin is on official list of passengers of crashed aircraft". Ukrainska Pravda. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  22. ^ Gardner, Frank (24 August 2023). "Yevgeny Prigozhin: Was the Wagner chief a dead man walking?". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  23. ^ Kirby, Paul (24 August 2023). "Wagner boss Prigozhin's years of living dangerously". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  24. ^ "Частный самолет разбился в Тверской области, среди пассажиров был Пригожин". РИА Новости (in Russian). 23 August 2023. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  25. ^ Vernon, Will (24 August 2023). "How Russia reacted after Prigozhin plane crash". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  26. ^ "Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin 'on board' jet that crashed in Russia". Aljazeera. 24 August 2023. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  27. ^ "World reaction to possible death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin". Aljazeera. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  28. ^ "France has 'reasonable doubts' over Wagner's Prigozhin plane crash: Spokesman". al-Arabiya. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  29. ^ "Ukraine says Wagner convoys appear to be heading to Russia". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.

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