Russia: Apart from Wagner boss, who else was onboard plane that crashed
Yevgeny Prigozhin
The head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, reportedly died on Wednesday (August 24) in a private plane crash that killed all 10 onboard, including crew members in Moscow's Tver region.
Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency released the names of two pilots and one flight attendant who lost their lives in the deadly crash. The agency cited the airline to confirm that Captain Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov, and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova died.
Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency also released the names of those who were onboard, apart from Prigozhin. The list includesSergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Aleksandr Totmin, andNikolay Matuseev. Two names stood out —Valeriy Chekalov and Dmitry Utkin.
Chekalov was a senior aide to Prigozhin designated by the US Treasury for acting "for or on behalf of Prigozhin and has facilitated shipments of munitions to the Russian Federation".
On the other hand, Utkin was Prigozhin's right-hand man who helped establish the mercenary group and bore the call sign "Wagner".
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The Kremlin stayed mum on the Wagner chief's death, but Russian investigators said they had opened a criminal investigation.
Some unnamed sources told Russian media that they believed the plane had been shot down by one or more surface-to-air missiles.
Watch this report:
What did Ukraine and the West say?
A senior aide to the Ukrainian presidency said that the crash of a plane was a signal from the Kremlin. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak wrote on social media: "The demonstrative elimination of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after the coup attempt is a signal from Putin to Russia's elites ahead of the 2024 elections. 'Beware! Disloyalty equals death'."
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said he was "not surprised" at the news that Prigozhin may have died. He even suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin was involved.
France said Thursday that there were "reasonable doubts" about the cause of the plane crash.
(With inputs from agencies)
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