MOSCOW — Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief armed rebellion against the Russian military earlier this year, was on the passenger list of a private jet that crashed Wednesday, killing all 10 people on board, emergency officials said.
The crash immediately raises suspicions since the fate of the founder of the Wagner private military company has been the subject of intense speculation ever since he mounted the mutiny. The Kremlin said he would be exiled to Belarus, but the mercenary chief, whose troops were some of the best fighting forces for Russia in Ukraine, has since reportedly popped up in Russia.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-appointed official in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine, said he talked to Wagner commanders who confirmed that Prigozhin was aboard when the plane crashed. Prigozhin's top associate, Dmitry Utkin, whose call sign Wagner became the company’s name, was as well, according to Rogov.
The signal stopped suddenly while the plane was at altitude and traveling at speed. In an image posted by a pro-Wagner social media account showing burning wreckage, a partial tail number matching a jet previously used by Prigozhin could be seen. Even if confirmed, Prigozhin’s death is unlikely to have an effect on Russia's war in Ukraine, where his forces fought some of the fiercest battles over the last 18 months.
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