Wagner Leader Believed to Be Aboard Plane That Crashed in Russia

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group who staged an aborted mutiny in opposition to Russia’s navy management in June, in one of the vital dramatic challenges to President Vladimir V. Putin’s rule in many years, was listed as a passenger on a aircraft that crashed on Wednesday in Russia, killing everybody on board, the nation’s aviation authorities stated.

Mr. Prigozhin’s destiny was not instantly recognized. A passenger manifest launched by the Russian authorities confirmed his title and that of Wagner’s prime commander, Dmitri Utkin, among the many seven passengers and three crew members. And Grey Zone, a Telegram account related to the Wagner group, stated that Mr. Prigozhin had been killed. But there was no official affirmation of his demise from Wagner or the Russian authorities.

Russia’s aviation authority provided no touch upon the rationale for the crash, and introduced that it had created a particular fee to analyze “the circumstances and causes of the accident.”

Mr. Prigozhin, a catering entrepreneur turned outspoken tycoon who constructed the non-public Wagner paramilitary power that has fought on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine and throughout Africa, instigated the insurrection together with his Wagner forces after railing for months in audio and video clips in opposition to Russia’s navy leaders.

He complained publicly and profanely that they have been incompetents and back-stabbers, and that Wagner deserved credit score for battlefield successes in Mr. Putin’s conflict in Ukraine. In launching the mutiny, he insisted, nonetheless, that he was not aiming at Mr. Putin, however relatively on the protection minister, Sergei Okay. Shoigu, and Russia’s prime uniformed navy officers, who he stated have been bungling the conflict.

In a surprising transfer, Wagner’s fighters took over the Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and started a march on Moscow in June, riveting the world. But simply as abruptly because it began, the mutiny was referred to as off by Mr. Prigozhin, who agreed to withdraw from Rostov-on-Don below a deal that might supposedly drop any costs and permit Mr. Prigozhin and fighters loyal to him to decamp for neighboring Belarus.

The Kremlin launched what many analysts thought-about a low-key crackdown in response to the mutiny. But many observers speculated that Mr. Prigozhin’s betrayal was tantamount to a demise sentence.

American officers stated they might not affirm Mr. Prigozhin had been killed within the aircraft crash, or why the jet went down.

When requested if he thought Mr. Putin was behind the aircraft crash, President Biden responded: “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind. But I don’t know enough to know the answer.”

The aircraft crash occurred solely hours after Russian state media reported a separate, public blow in opposition to one other determine suspected of being related to the mutiny: Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander who helped shore up Russia’s defenses in Ukraine, was faraway from his publish because the chief of Russia’s Air Force.

Analysts have described General Surovikin — referred to as “General Armageddon” for his ruthless techniques — as a brutally efficient chief in a Russian navy that even many cheerleaders of the conflict have described as riddled with incompetence. But his hyperlinks to Mr. Prigozhin appeared to precipitate his fall from grace.

American officers stated the final had advance information of the Wagner insurrection, and he has not been seen in public for the reason that mutiny. The Russian news company RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday that he “is now on a short vacation.”

Col. Gen. Viktor Afzalov, chief of the Air Force’s normal workers, was named the appearing commander, it reported.

Even after the mutiny, Mr. Prigozhin, 62, appeared to maneuver about freely in latest weeks, and even met with Mr. Putin on the Kremlin on June 29. On Monday, Mr. Prigozhin launched a short video message on-line, hinting that he was in Africa, though the video recording’s timing and site have been unclear. Dressed in fatigues and holding an assault rifle, he stated that Wagner was “making Russia even greater, on all continents, and Africa even more free.”

Despite the uncertainty across the aircraft crash and Mr. Prigozhin’s destiny, U.S. intelligence businesses stated that they had been shocked that Mr. Putin had not but taken motion in opposition to the Wagner chief after his mutiny.

In July, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, stated {that a} “complicated dance” with Mr. Putin had developed. Mr. Prigozhin traveled between Russia and Belarus, the place President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko had provided Mr. Prigozhin and his fighters refuge, and different places. But Mr. Burns predicted that Mr. Putin would transfer in opposition to Mr. Prigozhin.

“Putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold,” Mr. Burns stated on the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado final month. “So he’s going to try to settle the situation to the extent he can. But, again, in my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback. So I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution for this.”

The aircraft that listed Mr. Prigozhin as a passenger on Wednesday left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport about 6 p.m. native time, certain for St. Petersburg. It went down lower than 100 miles to the northwest, close to the town of Tver. RIA Novosti posted an unconfirmed video, extensively shared on social media, that purports to point out the aircraft tumbling from the sky, smoke billowing.

Video shared on the Telegram messaging app appeared to point out the plane burning on the bottom. The paint and a partial registration quantity, RA-02795, seen on the plane within the video, an Embraer Legacy 600 enterprise jet, align with a jet that Mr. Prigozhin is understood to make use of.

Ten our bodies have been recovered on the crash website, RIA Novosti reported, citing Russian Emergency Services officers. The state tv channel Rossiya-24 cited the authorities as saying that seven passengers and three crew members had been on the aircraft.

Mr. Putin didn’t remark instantly on the crash. Around the time the news broke, Russian tv broadcast stay footage of his look within the Kursk area to honor the eightieth anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

“I heartily congratulate all citizens of Russia on this event,” Mr. Putin stated whereas standing onstage in entrance of an orchestra.

Officials in Ukraine, which has suffered steep losses of life and has seen villages, cities and cities devastated by Mr. Putin’s 18-month conflict, have been additionally cautious about saying precisely what had occurred. But Andriy Yermak, the top of the president’s workplace, posted what seemed to be a thinly veiled reference to the crash on his Telegram account: an audio hyperlink to the tune “Highway to Hell.”

A spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, stated that if Mr. Prigozhin’s demise was confirmed, “no one should be surprised.” She added, “The disastrous war in Ukraine led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now, it would seem, to this.”

Some Russian bloggers and different pro-Moscow voices warned in opposition to concluding that Mr. Prigozhin was lifeless, a lot much less that he had been killed intentionally. The pro-war Russian navy weblog Arkhangel Spetsnaz urged its greater than 900,000 followers on Telegram to “leave all conjectures and investigations for later.” The publish added, “The enemy takes advantage of every destabilizing situation.”

But Grey Zone, the weblog near the Wagner group, reported that Mr. Prigozhin and Mr. Utkin, his prime commander, had been killed.

Mr. Prigozhin “died as a result of the actions of traitors of Russia,” a publish by Grey Zone stated. “But even in hell, he will be the best!”

Reporting was contributed by Valerie Hopkins, Paul Sonne, Riley Mellen, Eric Schmitt, Erica L. Green, Julian E. Barnes and Cassandra Vinograd.