Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin died on Wednesday when a private plane in which he was travelling crashed in Russia, according to The Grey Zone account on social network Telegram.
The Grey Zone, which is affiliated to the Russian paramilitary group, said the plane had been shot down.
Various Russian sources had reported earlier on Wednesday that a private plane with 10 people on board had crashed in the Tver region of Russia while on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg. Prigozhin was among the victims of the crash, which left no survivors, according to the passenger list cited by Russian media.
However, The Grey Zone, which Prigozhin regularly used to publish his videos, had previously stated that two Wagner aircraft were flying together at the time.
“Where Yevgeny Prigozhin really was, there is currently no precise information on this subject,” the channel had stated, casting doubt on the version of civil aviation authorities, who had said Wagner’s boss was on the list of passengers of the crashed plane.
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency commented on Wednesday that the crash was a "signal" sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin to his country's elites.
“The spectacular elimination of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after (their) coup attempt is a signal from Putin to the Russian elites ahead of the 2024 elections,” Mykhaïlo Podoliak said on X (ex-Twitter). “Putin does not forgive anyone,” he commented.
The Wagner boss, once close to the master of the Kremlin, had incurred Putin's wrath after launching a mutiny on 23 and 24 June in the midst of the war against Ukraine. The rebellion, which targeted the Russian General Staff and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigou, was nevertheless short-lived and Prigozhin, once fond of shock videos posted on Telegram, disappeared from public radar.
On Monday evening, however, he appeared in a video circulated by groups close to Wagner on social networks, in which he claimed to be in Africa.
