The plane, carrying Prigozhin and six other passengers including key members of the Wagner military company, crashed shortly after taking off from Moscow.
It’s still uncertain as to why several high-ranking members of the Wagner group were on the same flight. However, Russian authorities haven’t confirmed these deaths. Reports suggest that the victims’ bodies were severely burned and unrecognizable, requiring DNA identification.
Supporters of Prigozhin allege that the plane was intentionally downed. UNN Russian sources claim that the Wagner group had a contract with the Chinese Deep State to operate in Ukraine. The source alleges a failure to perform on Wagner’s part would have had dire consequences for the group’s leaders. The source has said the downed plane would be a classic KGB trick to fake the deaths of those in charge of Wagner in order to avoid backlash from the Chinese Deep State.
US president Joe Biden has expressed suspicions about Putin’s involvement, while a Pentagon spokesman refuted reports of a surface-to-air missile being involved. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.