In Moscow, mourners cry at a makeshift Wagner memorial.

Tearful mourners gathered in Moscow over the weekend to pay muted respect to the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, and 9 different individuals whom the Russian authorities stated had been killed in a aircraft crash final week.

Hundreds of individuals have positioned flowers, images, candles and flags — together with some bearing the non-public army group’s cranium design — at a small sidewalk memorial close to Red Square in Moscow.

Many wept overtly, expressing shock over the demise of a person they stated they revered, and disappointment on the lack of life. Almost all expressed their help for the invasion of Ukraine.

“No matter what happens, we always remember them as heroes; we will forever remember their exploits and pray for them,” stated Alyona, 25. Like many who agreed to be interviewed, Alyona didn’t need to give her final identify due to the political sensitivity surrounding Mr. Prigozhin, who ceaselessly criticized how the battle was carried out and launched a short rise up in opposition to the army’s management two months in the past.

Alyona gestured to a Wagner flag, depicting a cranium surrounded by the phrases “Blood, Honor, Motherland, Courage,” and stated, “These are words that are not an empty phrase for these people.”

Volunteers handed out water, candies and snacks, a funeral custom within the Russian Orthodox religion. On a low wall alongside the sidewalk, tea lights crowded amongst memorial candles and funeral wreaths. An extended banner learn “Being a soldier is to live forever!”

Some Wagner fighters who got here to pay their respects described their loyalty to the mercenary group’s chief.

“I was mobilized,” stated one soldier, who would give solely his name signal, Prapor, and his age, 32. He confirmed Times journalists a Wagner canine tag emblazoned with the day the Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut was captured in May.

“No one ever abandoned me; they helped me, they did everything that was necessary and provided me with everything that was needed,” stated Prapor, who added that he had personally met Mr. Prigozhin.

Many couldn’t consider that Mr. Prigozhin and his group’s high army commander, Dmitri Utkin — whose name signal was stated to be the inspiration for the group’s identify — had died.

“We didn’t believe it to the last moment,” stated Kirill, 31, who wore a Wagner hat and stated he had a relationship with the mercenary group however was not a soldier. He praised Mr. Prigozhin’s open, colloquial and sometimes profanity-laced communication fashion.

“Wagner leaders were honest — they told us everything,” he unhappy. “They spoke to people informally, just as they communicated with the wider public.” He referred to as Wagner’s seize of Bakhmut, which razed most of a metropolis that was house to 70,000 individuals earlier than the battle, “a great success.”

Other mourners stated they appreciated Mr. Prigozhin’s populist messages, which included criticism of the army institution — notably the protection minister, Sergei Ok. Shoigu — and at occasions stretched to President Vladimir V. Putin himself.

“Evgeny Prigozhin won my respect for the simple fact that he went against this system, against Putin, Shoigu and began an active fight against our government,” stated Sergei, a 23-year-old scholar. “But the fact that his mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine, I am against that.”

Sergei confirmed footage on his telephone of himself getting arrested throughout rallies for an additional populist who dared to problem Mr. Putin: Aleksei A. Navalny, who survived a poisoning try and has been sentenced to greater than 30 years in jail on prices that human rights teams say are political.

The Kremlin has denied involvement within the crash, which U.S. officers have stated they believed was the results of an explosion on board, presumably in retaliation for the rise up.

Sergei stated he believed that the ten individuals had been ordered killed as revenge for the mutiny. And despite the fact that Russia’s Investigative Committee stated genetic testing confirmed the stays from the crash web site matched the names on the jet’s flight log, Sergei stated he believed there was an opportunity that Mr. Prigozhin might nonetheless be alive.

Billboards throughout Moscow encourage individuals to signal army contracts, or proclaim the heroic deeds of fallen troopers. But in a rustic the place little is alleged concerning the casualties, the sidewalk memorial turned a uncommon place for individuals to mourn publicly.

Elena, a 47-year-old lawyer initially from the Ukrainian metropolis of Mariupol, cried for about 5 minutes as she took within the images and mementos.

“Russia is protecting these people,” she stated of Ukrainians residing in Russian-occupied territory, calling the deaths of the Wagner management a “tragedy.”

“I feel so sorry about these people,” she stated. “I’ve been following the activities of Wagner Group leaders. I thought they were Russian patriots.”

Like most individuals on the web site, she expressed respect for Mr. Prigozhin with out making an attempt to instantly distinction him to Mr. Putin or his Ministry of Defense, and didn’t take any stance on the Wagner mutiny or the way it was resolved. Nor was she prepared to take a position about the reason for the aircraft crash.

The improvised memorial predates Mr. Prigozhin’s demise however has grown quickly in current days. It was initially erected for the army blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in a bombing in St. Petersburg in April, and options images of different distinguished pro-war Russians, together with Daria Dugina, the daughter of a distinguished Russian nationalist, who was killed in a automotive bombing in August 2022.

But virtually everybody appeared centered on the Wagner chief.

“In our history, there was only one Lenin, one Stalin and one Prigozhin,” Alyona stated. “If someone else like Lenin, Stalin, or Prigozhin appears, we will consider ourselves lucky.”

Milana Mazaeva contributed reporting from Washington.