August 24, 2023 Russia-Ukraine, Prigozhin news

The plane crash site is shown in this satellite image.

The fuselage of the plane believed to be carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin was largely intact when the aircraft crashed into the ground on Wednesday, according to new imagery shared exclusively with CNN.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image taken by Umbra Lab, Inc., showed that crash site is in the shape of an oblong oval – containing mostly the fuselage – and is confined to a specific area. 

That conclusion is supported by video geolocated and authenticated by CNN that shows the plane’s fuselage and engines, with a wing apparently missing, falling out of the sky. 

Although the majority of the debris appears at the fuselage-shaped site at the edge of a forest clearing, smaller chunks of the plane did fall elsewhere. Just over a mile – or nearly two kilometers – southeast of the main debris site, CNN geolocated images and video that showed part of the plane’s tail sitting in a clearing, near a row of homes. 

What is SAR imagery: SAR imagery is unlike normal satellite imagery. It is created by transmitting radar beams that are able to pass through clouds. The beams bounce off objects on the ground and echo back to the satellite; what they bounce off of is then mapped out by the satellite and the SAR image is created.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says there were no casualties reported among special forces that carried out a raid against Russian facilities in Crimea early Thursday morning.

The attack appears to be one of the Ukrainian armed forces’ most complex and ambitious operations to date against Russian military facilities on the Crimean Peninsula.

Zelensky added that he would receive a report on the assault later.

The European Union has said it is “hard to verify” reports that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed to have been killed in a plane crash on Wednesday evening.

“We have seen the report about the plane crash which allegedly killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner group, alongside members of his entourage and crew members,” said Peter Stano, the bloc’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, at a press briefing on Thursday.

“But again, like so many other things in Russia, this is very hard to verify for us, and therefore not for us to comment,” Stano added.

Stano said the “negative actions” of Prigozhin and the Wagner group are widely known, pointing towards its involvement in the Ukraine war and its operations in African countries.

“Everywhere they [the Wagner group] have been present, were present or are present they left a trail of violation of human rights, [and] international humanitarian law. There is a lot of unaccountability, there are unclear rules under which they operate,” Stano said.

The group’s future operations will not only be affected by the “alleged death of Prigozhin” but also by “events in June” when the group decided to march on Moscow in a short-lived rebellion, he added.

Stano said that although the EU hopes that the “negative impact” of Wagner’s operations will cease, the bloc is mindful that the mercenary group is “not linked only to the name of its leader.”

He said that the group’s affiliation with the Kremlin is one of several “complex issues,” while also emphasizing that it is not for the EU to “speculate whether the alleged killing or death of Prigozhin in a plane crash will have any specific consequences on Wagner’s activities.”

Russian servicemen inspect a part of the crashed private jet in Tver region, Russia, on August 24.

Nearly 24 hours after the crash of an aircraft that Russian authorities say was carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and two of his top lieutenants, the Kremlin has said nothing about the incident.

No other senior Russian official has commented either.

President Vladimir Putin was at an event in Kursk on Wednesday when news emerged of the crash, but offered no comment there nor on his return to Moscow. 

There was no conference call with Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov on Thursday for media. The last call held by Peskov was on August 4.

Putin met with Prigozhin and Wagner commanders several days after their short-lived mutiny in Russia at the end of June, despite previously describing the event as an act of treason.

Prigozhin was subsequently able to move freely and even appeared on the sidelines of the Africa summit organized by the Kremlin in St Petersburg last month. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference on August 24, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had nothing to do with the plane crash that is presumed to have killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Wednesday, Ukrainian state media reported.

Speaking at a news conference alongside Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is visiting Kyiv, Zelensky said: “We have nothing to do with this situation. That’s for sure. But I think everyone realizes who has.”

Zelensky did not elaborate further.

It’s 3 p.m. in the Russian city of Tver, where forensic scientists are working to confirm the news that’s gripped Russia and beyond: Was Yevgeny Prigozhin on board the plane that crashed in Russia on Wednesday, killing everyone on board?

Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, was listed as a passenger on the manifest of the private Embraer jet that went down. So too was Dmitriy Utkin, a key Wagner figure, and Valeriy Chekalov, a senior aide to Prigozhin.

Ten people in total were on board the aircraft, all of whom were killed when it went down en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Eight bodies have since been found, according to Russian officials and state media. Russian authorities have said efforts will be made to confirm the identity of the victims at the Tver morgue. 

Here’s what else you need to know about the crash

Meanwhile, in the war with Ukraine,

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska carry flowers to the Wall of Remembrance in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 24.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska honored the memory of those killed in the war with Russia to mark the country’s Independence Day.

The couple laid flowers at the Wall of Remembrance near St. Michael Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv and observed a moment of silence in memory of the fallen heroes.

Zelensky also honored the memory of activists killed during street protests that led to the downfall of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

The president and first lady also attended a service at St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.

We’re learning more about the Ukrainian raid in the Crimean village of Mayak, and it appears it was part of one of Ukrainian forces’ most complex and ambitious operations to date against Russian military facilities on the Crimean Peninsula.

The operation involved Ukrainian special forces landing on the western shore of Crimea, near the settlements of Olenivka and Mayak, to attack Russian units, destroy Kremlin materiel and raise the Ukrainian flag.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate said it carried out the attack in a joint operation with the Ukrainian Navy. The directorate released several videos purporting to show Ukrainian inflatables close to the Crimean coast in the darkness.

There’s been no word from the Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea on the attacks.

The area targeted by Kyiv contains extensive Russian air defenses and missile sites, including advanced systems. Mayak is said to be home to a Russian radio engineering regiment and sophisticated radar.

It is the second time in two days that Ukrainian forces have targeted Russian weaponry in the area. Kyiv said Wednesday its forces had destroyed an S-400 missile defense battery in the area.

Reports from social media: Unofficial Russian social media accounts have spoken of firing near a campsite at Cape Tarkhankut – the westernmost point in Crimea – before dawn on Thursday. One channel said the first shooting broke out shortly before 4 a.m.

A prominent Russian military blog, Wargonzo, reported that, “according to some sources, a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group landed in the area of Cape Tarkhankut, shelled the camping on the seashore and fled in the direction of Odesa.”

A Telegram channel associated with a military unit of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic also reported the clashes. It said that four Ukrainian boats were destroyed near Cape Tarkhankut and 15 to 20 people were killed.

Yevgeny Prigozhin gives an address in a desert area at an unknown location, in this still image taken from video possibly shot in Africa and published August 21.

Days before the plane crash that is reported to have killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner boss appears to have made a quick trip to Mali, where his private military company operates in support of government forces against jihadist groups.

The one-day visit appears to have been a further indication that Prigozhin and Wagner were engaged in a sharp pivot away from Ukraine and toward focusing on activities in Africa.

Flight-tracking data shows an Ilyushin-76 aircraft of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry left Moscow late last week and flew via Damascus to Bamako, the capital of Mali, arriving there on Saturday. A day later, the plane flew back to Russia via the same route, arriving at Zhukovsky Airport outside Moscow on Monday.

Soon after the Ilyushin-76 completed its trip, video emerged of Prigozhin speaking in desert surroundings. Analysts with the open source group All Eyes On Wagner have noted that in the background as he speaks, there is a pick-up truck commonly used by the Malian military.

An apparently confident Prigozhin says that “Wagner PMC is conducting RPD (reconnaissance and search operations), making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa – even freer. Justice and happiness for the African peoples. Let’s make it a nightmare for ISIS, al Qaeda and other thugs. We are hiring real bogatyrs (ancient Slavic warriors) and continue to fulfill the tasks that were set before us and that we promised we would handle.”

CNN has been unable to confirm whether Prigozhin traveled on the Ilyushin-76 or when the video was shot – but it appears to be recent.

Wagner has often used Russian air force airlift like the Ilyushin-76 to resupply its mercenary units in Africa, specifically in Libya, Mali, Sudan and the Central African Republic. Russian air force planes have continued to shuttle back and forth to African countries where Wagner has a presence despite the short-lived mutiny led by Prigozhin in Russia at the end of June. 

There is evidence that Wagner operations have continued in both Mali and the Central African Republic since then, even as Wagner fighters relocated to Belarus and were forced to give up their heavy weaponry. 

Jihadi groups in Mali claim to have killed a number of Russians in recent clashes. The al Qaeda-aligned group JNIM claimed late last week that its fighters clashed with Malian soldiers “and militants from the Russian PMC Wagner group between Timbuktu and Ber.”

Prigozhin had suggested that Wagner was also ready to intercede in Niger following the coup there last month.

The wreckage of a plane is seen at the crash site in Tver region, Russia, on August 24.

Vitaly Stepenok, a 72-year-old resident of the village of Kuzhenkino, shared with Reuters his account of what happened when the plane believed to be carrying Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin fell from the sky.

Stepenok said he first heard a loud bang and was afraid the plane would land on houses in Kuzhenkino, which lies roughly midway between the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

After the crash, Stepenok said he jumped on his bike and arrived at the scene in 20 minutes.

Ukrainian forces carried out what Kyiv called a special operation in the annexed Crimean Peninsula, a government spokesman said Thursday. What exactly happened remains unclear.

Andrii Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Directorate of Intelligence, said the agency partnered with Ukraine’s Navy to carry out the operation. Yusov said authorities would not be disclosing all the details surrounding the mission – only that it was a success, there were no Ukrainian casualties and that there were losses on the enemy’s side.

While Yusov declined to offer details, accounts on social media help paint a picture of what happened. According to a channel called “Krym Realii” on the messaging app Telegram, explosions were heard near the village of Mayak on Cape Tarkhankut at about 5 a.m. Other unofficial social media accounts spoke of hearing gunfire near a campsite on the Crimean coast. One said that people had seen two rubber boats close to the shore.

Russian forces are believed to have stationed missiles at various locations on Crimea’s west coast that have been used to target Odesa, a nearby Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, and other locations.

What’s happening in Crimea: Ukrainian forces have, in recent weeks, stepped up their operations targeting Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russian forces in 2014 in violation of international law, using missiles and sea drones to hit Kremlin targets there.

In an interview with CNN last month, Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Kyiv would continue carrying out attacks on Crimea and the Kerch Bridge that connects it to the Russian mainland.

Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that it had “completely destroyed” a Russian missile system in a village on the same cape where the Thursday special operation took place.

Vans said to be carrying the bodies of those who were on board the plane that crashed Wednesday were seen on Russian media arriving at the Tver Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination.

The same black vans had been seen at the crash site earlier on Thursday.

Eight bodies were found at the crash site, Russian media reported on Wednesday. Wagner chief Yevegeny Prigozhin was listed as one of the passengers on board the downed plane.

Russian authorities have said efforts will be made to confirm the identity of the victims at the Tver morgue. 

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District amid the group's pullout from the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24.

A prominent figure among Russia’s ultra-nationalist community, Alexander Dugin, spoke of Yevgeny Prigozhin as a “hero” following reports of the Wagner chief’s presumed death.

Dugin shared an anecdote in which his daughter Darya – who was killed in a bomb explosion in Moscow last summer – described Prigozhin in glowing terms at the outset of the war.

Dugin added on his Telegram channel: “If the diabolical enemy kills our heroes with precision, it means that we have heroes.”

The Russian security services said that Dugina’s assassination was the work of Ukrainian intelligence. A Ukrainian defense intelligence official told CNN shortly after her death that Kyiv had nothing to do with it, though the US intelligence community believes that the bombing was authorized by elements within the Ukrainian government, sources briefed on the information told CNN in October.

French government spokesperson Olivier Veran speaks at a news conference in Paris on July 26.

A French government spokesman said many details about the plane crash that is presumed to have killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin “remain unknown.”

When asked by French television station France 2 if he was surprised by the news of the crash, Olivier Veran said:

Veran added that Prigozhin was the man behind “Putin’s dirty work” and, if he is indeed dead, he would leave behind “a terrible mess” in large parts of the world. Veran said that Prigozhin’s actions are “inseparable” from President Vladimir Putin’s politics. 

Veran also agreed with US President Joe Biden’s statement that “little happens in Russia that Putin is not behind,” saying that “on principle that is a truth we can establish.”

The Ukrainian military said its units have extended gains on the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region and remain on the offensive around the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Novoprokopivka is south of the village of Robotyne, which the Ukrainians said Wednesday they fully controlled. 

Meanwhile, the General Staff said “in the Bakhmut sector, the Defense Forces continue to conduct offensive actions south of the city of Bakhmut, consolidating their positions.”

Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian Land Forces, said he had been working with commanders north and northeast of Bakhmut.

The General Staff also claimed the Russians had continued to conduct “unsuccessful offensives” in the areas of Avdiivka, Mariinka and Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region. 

In the northeast: Ukrainian forces were also holding back Russian attempts to advance further north around Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, as well as efforts to break through west of Svatove in neighboring Luhansk. In this area, the Ukrainians say the Russians have poured more forces into the battlefield. 

Altogether, the Russians launched 10 missile strikes and 57 airstrikes Wednesday, the General Staff said.

Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 23.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Ukrainians on Thursday as the war-torn country marks its 32nd Independence Day.

Calling “an independent Ukraine” what “we are fighting for,” Zelensky lauded the contributions from every citizen saying, “in a big war, there are no small deeds.”

He thanked all Ukrainians on the front lines along with the volunteers and families behind them. He also mourned the fallen soldiers, calling them “heroes who prevented us from losing Ukraine.”

The president also assured Ukrainians “under occupation” who have “waited and will witness the return of Ukraine.”

August 24 marks the anniversary of Ukraine’s 1991 declaration that it would break with the Soviet Union.

Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, on June 22.

A Moscow court has extended the pre-trial detention of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich by three months, the press service of the Lefortovo Court said Thursday.

Gershkovich’s pretrial detention was due to end on August 30 but was extended until November 30.

Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in jail on espionage charges, which he and his employer vehemently contest

The US citizen was arrested in Russia in March in a sign of the Kremlin’s crackdown on foreign media news outlets since it invaded Ukraine last year.

Read more about Gershkovich’s case here:

FILE - Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court, in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2023. Gershkovich, who was detained on espionage charges, arrived at a Moscow court Thursday, Aug. 24, for a hearing on a motion by the prosecution to extend his arrest. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Related article Moscow court extends WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich's pre-trial detention, state media reports | CNN

Wreckage is seen near the crash site in the Tver region, Russia, on August 24.

Wreckage of the plane crash northwest of Moscow is scattered across a 2-kilometer debris field, Russian state media reported Thursday.

State-run news agency RIA Novosti also reported that one of the fragments of the plane is lying on the entry road into the village of Kuzhenkino, which is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the crash site. 

According to RIA, police officers cordoned off the fragment and several special services cars are parked nearby. 

Fatal journey: Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board the plane that crashed with no survivors, according to Russian authorities, just months after he launched a mutiny against Russia’s military leadership.

The Kremlin is yet to comment on the crash. The Russian Investigative Committee said earlier it had initiated “a criminal case” following the crash, while state aviation authority Rosaviation said a specially created commission “has begun investigating the circumstances and causes of the accident.”

At least seven people have been injured following Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, a Ukrainian military official said Thursday.

A transport facility was destroyed in the airstrikes, and about a dozen buildings were damaged including a bank, a gas station, a hotel, and an agricultural company. Two residential buildings and water and gas pipelines were also damaged, Lysak added.

Among those injured by shrapnel are three men and four women, ages 32 to 55. Six of them were hospitalized and are in a “moderate condition,” Lysak said.

The attacks also caused a fire that was later contained by the authorities, according to Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region council.

The crash site in Russia's northwestern Tver region on August 23.

The plane that crashed reportedly carrying Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, was a private Embraer jet carrying seven passengers and three crew members, according to Russia’s emergency services ministry. 

It’s not yet clear what caused the plane to crash. Russian authorities said they are investigating and conducting search operations.

Here’s what we know:

Expert points to possible explosion: “It’s coming down quickly in a spin, and it’s trailing a lot of smoke. So, this is an aircraft that was on fire. And it looks like some structural pieces, aerodynamic surfaces, were missing,” veteran science and aerospace reporter Miles O’Brien told CNN after reviewing footage of the plane’s fall.

It could be caused by an explosion either inside or outside the aircraft, O’Brien added — like an explosive going off on board, or the aircraft being hit by a missile. 

Read the full analysis here.

Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a failed uprising against the Kremlin exactly two months ago, was on board a plane that crashed on Wednesday with no survivors, according to Russian authorities.

The private Embraer jet was carrying seven passengers and three crew members, Russia’s emergency services ministry said. Eight bodies have been found at the crash site, according to state media.

Here’s a round-up of reaction to the crash and what could come next:

Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24.

If Yevgeny Prigozhin’s final chapter has indeed been written, he lived as he apparently died: Violently, flamboyantly and at the center of intrigue.

The facts are still only beginning to become clear. On Wednesday afternoon, an Embraer Legacy business jet registered to the Wagner mercenary boss plummeted from the sky, crashing just south of the village of Kuzhenkinskoe in Russia’s Tver region. All 10 aboard were killed. 

Russia’s state aviation agency said Prigozhin was on board. 

But it didn’t take long for theories to start careening around the internet. Was the plane shot down? Or, perhaps, had a bomb been placed on board? And was Prigozhin really dead? Russian arch-propagandist Vladimir Solovyov seemed to suggest as much, implying in a statement on Telegram that reports of the oligarch’s death were premature.

Solovyov, who is well known for playing fast and loose with facts, quickly back-pedaled. But the circumstances of the crash, as well as Prigozhin’s open confrontation with the Kremlin in June, seemed ripped from the pages of a second-rate thriller.

After all, in the days following an abortive march on Moscow by his troops, Russian state television revealed Prigozhin’s penchant for wigs, disguises and multiple passports, all found at one of his gangster-chic residences.

And it wouldn’t have been completely out of character for Prigozhin — who ran the notorious “troll farms” involved in meddling in the 2016 presidential election — to troll the world by staging his death. After all, Russian investigative outlets have reported that the Wagner head apparently employed at least one body double. 

But such speculation leaves aside the main point. Prigozhin, for all intents and purposes, is no longer a force in Russian politics. Batya — the fatherly moniker some of his men used for him — has left the building.

Read the full analysis here.

Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day Thursday, exactly 18 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its former Soviet neighbor

August 24 marks the 32nd anniversary of when Ukraine declared it would break with the Soviet Union in 1991.

Before Russia’s invasion, the day was marked by celebrations and parades but last year, it was darkened by a missile strike on an eastern Ukrainian train station that killed at least 22 people.

Here are the latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine:

Aimprisoned former general with Russia’s security services who reportedly had knowledge of the construction of President Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea residence has died in custody, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. 

Gen. Gennady Lopyrev — who was convicted of bribery offenses in 2017 and was serving more than nine years at correctional colony No. 3 in the central Ryazan region — “suddenly fell ill” and was sent to a local hospital where he died on August 16, RIA reported.

According to state news agency TASS, Lopyrev was convicted of taking bribes “in the total amount of about 7 million rubles (about $74,000).”  

Lopyrev was also convicted of illegal possession of pistols and ammunition, RIA said, although those convictions were overturned on appeal.  

The general had always maintained his innocence of all charges. 

Citing Lopyrev’s lawyer Ruslan Zakalyuzhny, Russian news outlet RBC reported at the time of the trial that the court found Lopyrev guilty of “financial fraud related to the signing of contracts for the repair of engineering communications” of Putin’s summer residence, Bocharov Ruchey, in Sochi.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency on Wednesday released the names of two pilots and one flight attendant who were on board Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private jet when it crashed, killing all on board.

Citing the airline, the agency gave the names of the lost crew as:

Ten people were on board the aircraft, Russian state media has reported.

Earlier, the Federal Air Transport Agency shared the names of the passengers it said were on board, in addition to Prigozhin. They were named as:

Russian state media said earlier that eight bodies have been found at the crash site.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, was on board a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said.

All on board were killed, according to preliminary information, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Services said.

The crash comes two months after Prigozhin launched a mutiny against Russia’s military leadership. The attempted rebellion was called off in a deal that required Prigozhin and his fighters to relocate to Belarus.

Here’s what you need to know about the crash:

Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference in St. Petersburg, Russia on July 29.

As reports of the plane crash poured in on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was in the southwestern Kursk region leading a ceremony honoring both the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk and Russian forces currently fighting in Ukraine.

The anniversary relates to a clash near Kursk in 1943, during World War II, when the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought in a major tank battle, resulting in a Soviet victory.

Putin gave a speech at a memorial in the village of Ponyri and presented state awards to participants in what Russia still describes as its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Putin’s speech, and the elaborate, highly choreographed ceremony, were broadcast on state television Wednesday evening local time. In the same newscast, on state channel Russia 24, there was a report about a plane crash in Tver region, and that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s name was among the names of the passengers.

Putin’s remarks aired around 9 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), while state media reported that the crash had occurred around 6 p.m. local time. Russian Emergency services said at the time that the Embraer aircraft came down near the village of Kuzhenkino, in Tver region, while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. There were 10 people on board, including three crew members, and all were killed, Russian state media said.

During the ceremony in Kursk, which Putin described as “grandiose,” the Russian leader presented a state award to the crew of the Alyosha T-80 tank, which was claimed to have destroyed a Ukrainian armored convoy on the Zaporizhzhia axis, according to state news agency TASS.

While in Kursk, Putin also met with residents, video on Russia 24 showed. Residents shook hands with Putin and some even gave him a hug, in the Russia 24 clip.

Earlier in the day, Putin addressed, via video link, the BRICS summit that is underway in Johannesburg, claiming that Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in order to end a war “unleashed by the West.”

The “demonstrative elimination of (Yevgeny) Prigozhin” shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not forgive anyone for his own bestial terror,” Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian presidential adviser, claimed on social media.

“About Prigozhin: It is worth waiting for the fog of war to disappear… Meanwhile, it is obvious that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own bestial terror. Exactly the one that nullified him in June 2023,” Podolyak said.

The crash comes two months after Prigozhin launched a mutiny against Russia’s military leadership. The attempted rebellion was called off in a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that required Prigozhin and his fighters to relocate to Belarus.

But Podolyak claimed Putin was “waiting for the moment.”

Following that deal, criminal charges were dropped against the Wagner boss. But Putin said in a speech at the time that those on the “path of treason” would face punishment.

The Kremlin is yet to comment on the crash.

Flight-tracking data show the private jet purportedly carrying Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin experienced a “dramatic descent.”

Flight-tracking site FlightRadar24 says the Embraer Legacy 600 stopped transmitting position data at 6:11 p.m. local time, likely due to “interference/jamming in the area,” but the jet continued to transmit other data for another nine minutes.

FlightRadar24 says its data show the flight leveled off at 28,000 feet and made some slight altitude changes. The last minute of available data shows the plane making erratic climbs and descents, at one point climbing above 30,000 feet.

Then, at 6:19 p.m. local time, the data show the descent rate of the plane neared a blistering 8,000 feet per minute before the transmission of altitude data stopped.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is listed among passengers on board a plane that crashed north of Moscow, according to Russian state media.

Prigozhin, the founder and bombastic leader of Russia’s private military group Wagner, was once a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that changed after the mercenary incited an armed rebellion against the Kremlin.

Here’s what you need to know:

Read more about Prigozhin’s career and the rebellion.

Joe Biden speaks in Salt Lake City, Utah on August 10.

US President Joe Biden suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been behind the crash of a plane near Moscow.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is listed among passengers of the plane, and Biden said he wasn’t surprised that the Russian mercenary may have been targeted.

“You may recall, I was asked about this,” Biden told CNN’s Kevin Liptak, alluding to comments he made in July in which he said Prighozin should be worried about his safety following the failed mutiny.

At a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, in July, Biden joked that if he were Prighozin, “I’d be careful what I eat, keep my eye on my menu.”

Biden added that there is “not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind but I don’t know enough to know the answer.”

The president had just walked out of a fitness studio in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where the White House says he attended a Pilates class followed by a spin class.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner who staged a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June, was on board a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said.

There were seven passengers and three crew members on board the private Embraer jet when it crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, in the Tver region, on Wednesday, according to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Services. All on board were killed, according to preliminary information, the ministry said, adding that they “are conducting search operations.”

Among those on the plane were Dmitriy Utkin, a trusted lieutenant of Prigozhin’s since Wagner was formed, and Prigozhin’s senior aide Valeriy Chekalov, according to a list of passengers shared by the Russian aviation agency.

The bodies of eight people have been found at the crash site, state media outlet Russia 24 reported. Earlier, TASS reported the plane “burned up” on impact after being in the air for about half an hour.

Russian investigators have initiated a criminal case following the crash. The Russian Investigative Committee said that a team was on the way to the scene to “establish the causes of the crash.”

The crash comes months after Prigozhin launched a brief rebellion that posed an unprecedented challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority before it was suddenly called off in a deal that required the Wagner chief and his fighters to relocate to Belarus.

Wagner forces were heavily involved in capturing the eastern Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Prigozhin then spent months criticizing Russian military leadership and the support it was giving his troops before he called for the armed rebellion.

Read more here.

A top Russian general who went missing after the mercenary group Wagner’s insurrection in June has been fired from his role as head of the country’s aerospace forces, Russian state media reported Wednesday citing unnamed sources.

Gen. Sergey Surovikin has spent four decades as part of the Russian military, including a brief stint running Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

He was put in charge of the conflict in October 2022, shortly after a major explosion severely damaged the Kerch bridge connecting the annexed Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia. Surovikin was removed from that post just months later.

He has not been seen in public since June, when he released a video pleading for Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to stop his insurrection. A Russian lawmaker said in July that Surovikin is “resting.”

Documents shared with CNN in June suggested that Surovikin was a secret VIP member of Wagner. The New York Times reported in June that Surovikin may have had advanced knowledge of the rebellion, prompting widespread speculation about his role the mutiny.

The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Sorovikin was replaced by one of his deputies, Col. Gen. Viktor Afzalov, the former chief of the general staff of the Aerospace Forces.

Surovikin’s ouster comes about a month after another senior general, Ivan Popov, was removed from his post after accusing Moscow’s Defense Ministry leadership of betraying his troops by not providing sufficient support.

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