Prigozhin aircraft crash: Wagner chief and co-founder ‘killed’ in Russia aircraft crash as Putin at live performance – comply with Ukraine updates

Schools minister Nick Gibb stated “it’s important not to jump to conclusions” following stories that the chief of the Wagner mercenary group died in a aircraft crash.

He instructed Sky News: “We only heard about this, it only happened a few hours ago. We are monitoring the position. It’s important not to jump to conclusions. We are working with our allies, and as soon as we have assessed the situation the government will of course have more to say on the matter.”

It was put to him earlier on Times Radio that this can be additional proof that Russian president Vladimir Putin just isn’t the form of particular person offers may be made with, together with to finish the conflict in Ukraine.

Mr Gibb stated: “We do know that Putin engaged in an illegal invasion of Ukraine. He’s subject to a warrant for war crimes.

“So we know what kind of person Putin is. What we are doing as a British government with our allies is supporting the effort in Ukraine to defeat the Russians in this illegal invasion with billions of pounds of aid to Ukraine in their military efforts to defend their country.”

Black physique luggage had been eliminated by investigators on the crash website of the aircraft believed to have been carrying Prigozhin early on Thursday morning.

Part of the aircraft’s tail and different fragments lay on the bottom close to a wooded space the place forensic investigators had erected a tent.

Mourners left flowers and lit candles close to Wagner’s workplaces in St Petersburg early on Thursday.

The Kremlin stays silent on stories that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a aircraft crash close to Moscow.

There has been no official remark from Russian president Vladimir Putin or different senior officers, together with at Russia’s defence minstry.

A Telegram channel linked to Wagner, Grey Zone, has pronounced Prigozhin useless, nevertheless, and hailed him as a hero and a patriot who it stated had died by the hands of unidentified folks it known as “traitors to Russia.”

A video displaying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ideas on loss of life has been shared on a Telegram channel linked to the mercenary group, simply hours after its chief and co-founder had been feared to have died in a aircraft crash.

Prigozhin, a former jail convict and one in all Vladimir Putin’s closest associates till he launched a failed army coup in June, is believed to have died within the aircraft crash between Moscow and St Petersburg.

The Grey Zone Telegram channel, which offers each official and unofficial updates on Wagner actions, hailed Prigozhin as a hero and a patriot who died by the hands of unidentified “traitors to Russia” earlier on Wednesday.

Russian president Vladimir Putin made a uncommon go to to the Southern Military District headquarters which Wagner fighters had briefly taken management of in the course of the coup, the British Ministry of Defence stated in the present day.

Situated in Rostov-on-Don, roughly 160km from the frontline, the headquarters hosted Putin final week on Saturday, the ministry stated.

The HQ hosts army employees working the conflict in Ukraine.

“Putin held a meeting with senior officers, including Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov who continues to command the operation in Ukraine,” the MoD stated in its latest intelligence update.

The Russian president “highly likely wishes to project his authority and to portray the senior military command as functioning as usual”, it added.

Yevgeny Prigozhin‘s fate has been entwined with the Kremlin for decades — as a trusted government contractor, and the head of the Wagner mercenary army that fought in Ukraine and has been blamed for doing Russia’s soiled work in Syria and Africa.

But when he turned his males towards Moscow two months in the past, many inside Russia and past began questioning simply how lengthy he might final after drawing the fury of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was reported that Prigozhin reduce a take care of Putin and the chief of Belarus for a protected haven for himself and the lads concerned within the riot. He was reported to pop up periodically in Russia, and appeared in a recruitment video earlier this week.

But then on Wednesday Russia’s civil aviation company stated he was aboard a aircraft that crashed north of Moscow, killing all 10 folks on board.

Read extra about him right here:

Several specialists have speculated that every one is probably not because it appears with the crash of a non-public jet on Wednesday carrying a passenger named “Yevgeny Prigozhin”, even after Russia appeared to verify the loss of life of the Wagner mercenary group boss.

Russia’s air site visitors authority confirmed Prigozhin was named within the passenger checklist for the flight and Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-appointed official within the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia area in Ukraine, stated he talked to Wagner commanders who additionally confirmed that Prigozhin was aboard, as was Dmitry Utkin, Prigozhin’s shut aide whose name signal – Wagner – turned the corporate’s identify.

But Keir Giles, a Russia knowledgeable with the worldwide affairs suppose tank Chatham House, urged warning about stories of Prigozhin’s loss of life. He stated “multiple individuals have changed their name to Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as part of his efforts to obfuscate his travels”.

Flight monitoring knowledge confirmed a non-public jet that Prigozhin had used beforehand took off from Moscow on Wednesday night and its transponder sign disappeared minutes later.

Another non-public jet believed to be proper behind the downed one took a U-turn, in line with unverified flight monitoring knowledge.

An early morning missile strike injured seven folks within the Ukrainian metropolis of Dnipro, governor of Dnipropetrovsk area Serhiy Lisak stated in the present day.

Three males and 4 ladies had been among the many wounded, he stated.

Vladimir Putin was at a live performance hailing the “heroes” of Russia’s Ukraine invasion and marking a Second World War battle as a aircraft regarded as carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed, killing all these on board.

The Russian president was filmed making a speech on the live performance commemorating the victory of Soviet troops within the 1943 Battle of Kursk on the eightieth anniversary.

Video footage instructed he handed out army honours on the occasion in Kursk, not removed from the Ukrainian border in southwest Russia.

Russian air defence programs shot down three Ukrainian drones over Russian areas within the early hours in the present day, its defence ministry claimed.

Of these, two drones had been downed over the Bryansk area that borders Ukraine and one over the Kaluga area that’s nearer to Moscow.

Moscow has been below assault from Ukrainian drones for one week straight with a lot of them showing to focus on Moscow’s metropolis centre, although they’ve largely been downed by Russia’s air defence programs with none casualties.

Ukraine doesn’t usually take accountability for assaults concentrating on Russian soil or the occupied Crimean peninsula, although Ukrainian officers have typically lauded these assaults.