The passenger list for the crash of the jet was said to have included the boss of the company that built it
The Prigozhin Campaign: Making Russia Great, on all continents, and making Russia even more free,” the Russian media reported on Monday
Some Wagner fighters have relocated to Belarus, where officials have said the mercenaries are training Belarusian troops; others remain active in the Central African Republic, Mali and elsewhere in Africa, where they have helped prop up authoritarian leaders loyal to Moscow.
Even though the timing and location of the video recording were unknown, Mr. Prigozhin released a brief video on Monday that implied he was in Africa. Dressed in fatigues and holding an assault rifle, he said that Wagner was “making Russia even greater, on all continents, and Africa even more free.”
“Surovikin was relieved of his post in connection with the transfer to another job. He is now on a short vacation,” the RIA report added, citing a report from the Russian news outlet RBC.
General Afzalov was the interim commander of Russia’s air force while General Surovikin led Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine. Suspicions that General Afzalov had replaced General Surovikin were raised in July, when the former was shown in official video footage delivering an air force report to General Valery V. Gerasimov, Russia’s top military officer.
U.S. officials believe that General Surovikin had advance knowledge of Mr. Prigozhin’s rebellion. In the hours after the mutiny began, the Russian authorities quickly released a video of the general calling on the Wagner fighters to stand down.
He is also believed to have spearheaded the construction of Russia’s daunting network of defensive lines in the territory it occupies in Ukraine, which have challenged Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
PRIGOZhin’s Jet Was Killed in Kiev, and Russia’s Military Campaign in Ukraine – A Phenomenological Analysis
The private jet crashed in Russia, with all of the 10 people on board dead. There was a Mercenary leader who was on the passenger list, but it was unclear if he was on the plane.
Flight tracking data reviewed by The Associated Press showed a private jet registered to Wagner that Prigozhin had used previously took off from Moscow on Wednesday evening and its transponder signal disappeared minutes later.
There is a partial tail number matching a private jet in an image posted on a pro-Wagner social media account. The color and placement of the number on the engine of the crashed plane match the ones examined by The AP.
The news of the crash became public, and Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the heroes of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine at an event.
