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Post by Admin on Aug 24, 2023 3:26:07 GMT
President Biden reacted Wednesday to Russian state media reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former leader of the Wagener Mercenary Group, was one of 10 passengers killed when a jet crashed north of Moscow.
"I said I would be careful of what I drink and what I rode in. I don't know for a fact what happened, but I'm not surprised."
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Post by Admin on Aug 24, 2023 9:02:57 GMT
On Wednesday evening, people northwest of Moscow looked up and saw a plane falling out of the sky. In videos shared on social media, large hunks of metal are visible, plummeting toward Earth as smoke trails the falling objects. Judging by the sound in the footage, at least one of the aircraft’s engines is still working as it falls. Some parts of the plane, including a wing and the tail section, fall separately. A few hours later, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency confirmed that mercenary leaders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin — the commanders of Russia’s infamous Wagner Group — were aboard the crashed aircraft. Meduza analyzes the early evidence about what caused the crash: a bomb or a missile?
The footage posted online clearly indicates that some kind of explosion knocked Prigozhin’s plane out of the air. What remains unclear is whether it was a bomb inside the aircraft or a missile attack from outside.
A source at Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency reportedly told the television network Tsargrad that the plane was “blown up,” meaning it was not shot down (though Russian officials say they are still considering all possibilities). There are reasons to doubt the “bomb” explanation, however:
One video of the crash captured a cloud that resembles the contrail from a surface-to-air missile. Eyewitnesses in videos shared online talk about two explosions preceding the crash. It’s standard practice to launch two air-defense missiles against a single target in order to increase the odds of scoring a hit. Admittedly low-quality images from the crash site indicate that some of the wreckage contains holes that may have been caused by the preformed fragments of a surface-to-air missile warhead. These holes are not visible on wreckage that fell farther from the plane’s main fuselage.
There is also evidence suggesting that the explosion occurred inside the plane:
According to Flightradar24, the aircraft reached an altitude of 28,000 feet before falling. Many air-defense systems are incapable of hitting planes at this height. For example, the shot would have been virtually impossible for someone on the ground (such as Ukrainian special forces) using a man-portable air-defense system. In fact, any kind of short-range air-defense missile system likely could not have reached a target so high. At a minimum, this would have required a medium-range system (such as a Buk) that was also located near the target plane’s air path. The powerful missiles launched by these systems with a greater range would likely have caused even more damage to the plane than is visible from eyewitness footage. For example, if a 70-kilogram warhead and its 7,000 submunitions hit an aircraft the size of the Embraer ERJ-135, the fuselage would not likely have fallen to the ground “in one piece.” There is obvious political significance in determining whether it was a bomb or a missile that downed Prigozhin’s plane. If a surface-to-air missile was the cause, there will be no doubt that the Russian military is responsible for shooting down and killing the country’s most notorious mercenary leader. A bomb aboard the plane, on the other hand, allows for virtually any culprit (which, of course, does not exclude the Russian authorities).
The rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization stipulate that the crash investigation should be conducted by the local authorized agency, the Interstate Aviation Committee, with the participation of the aircraft manufacturer, Brazilian aerospace corporation Embraer S.A.
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Post by Admin on Aug 24, 2023 19:40:00 GMT
Vladimir Putin has praised Wagner group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as “a talented businessman”, and sent his condolences to the families of those who died in a plane crash near Moscow. Breaking his silence of 24 hours on the presumed death in the crash of the mercenary group leader and former ally, the Russian president said it was necessary to await the outcome of the official investigation. The crash, which killed 10 people, is widely claimed to be an assassination to avenge Mr Prigozhin’s mutiny in June that challenged Mr Putin. The US believes a surface-to-air missile originating inside Russia is likely to have shot down the plane, officials say, based on preliminary information. Intelligence chiefs said they suspected an explosion caused the crash. Earlier, masked men claiming to belong to Wagner warned the Kremlin to “get ready for us”. “There’s a lot of talk right now about what the Wagner group will do. We can tell you one thing: we are getting started, get ready for us,” the men warned in a video. Something torn from plane as it crashed, says witness A witness to the crash has described how something was torn from the plane as it fell to the ground. Anastasia Bukharova, 27, said she was walking with her children in Kuzhenkino when she saw the jet. “And then — boom! — it exploded in the sky and began to fall down.” She said she was scared it would hit houses in the village and ran with the children, but it ended up crashing into a field. “Something sort of was torn from it in the air, and it began to go down and down,” she added. Police cordoned off the field where the plane went down in Kuzhenkino, about 185 miles northwest of Moscow, as investigators studied its wreckage. Vehicles took away the bodies. Several Russian social media channels have reported that the bodies were burned or disfigured beyond recognition and would need to be identified by DNA.
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Post by Admin on Aug 24, 2023 22:01:07 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent his condolences to the families of those who were reportedly killed in a plane crash, including Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In a televised speech, Putin called Prigozhin a “talented businessman”, who "made serious mistakes in life", in an apparent reference to the group's rebellion earlier this year.
It is currently unclear what caused the plane to crash - killing all 10 people aboard - though UK defence sources told the BBC that Russia’s FSB intelligence agency is most likely to be responsible.
Putin said investigators will look into what happened - but that this will take time.
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Post by Admin on Aug 25, 2023 0:45:33 GMT
Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is thought to have been on a plane that crashed near Moscow, killing 10 people onboard.
Sky's Diana Magnay reports from a makeshift memorial just outside Saint Petersburg where supporters of Prigozhin have gathered to mourn.
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin has sent his condolences.
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