Horrifying moment Wagner chief Prigozhin’s private plane CRASHES and bursts into exploding ball of flames after ‘falling from the sky’ – with Putin rival feared dead
DAILY MAIL
This is the horrifying moment a plane believed to be carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed and burst into flames in a field in rural Russia.
Shocking footage shows the business jet, thought to be carrying seven passengers and three pilots, falling through the sky, with a trail of black smoke following behind it.
The plane then crashes into a field in the Bologovsky district in the Tver region, 60 miles north of Moscow, bursting into a ball of flames.
Unconfirmed videos taken from a far away fields show a plume of black smoke filling the air, while closer footage shows the wreck of what appears to a plane engulfed in an intense blaze.
Plumes of black smoke can be seen bellowing into the sky, with the wreck completely engulfed in flames.
The numbers 795 can just about be made out on the edge of the scrap pile, which matches the plane linked to the ex-military leader.
The cockpit of the plane is captured poking out from the fire while shocked locals walked around the debris.
Russian state media reports that Prigozhin is confirmed to have died, although MailOnline is unable to independently verify this.
Wagner deputy and co-founder Dmitry Utkin is also claimed to have been killed in the crash.
Russian authorities had previously said ten people had been killed in a business jet crash.
As the news broke around the world, a gleeful looking Vladimir Putin enjoyed a night out at a concert celebrating the Soviets World War Two victory at the Battle of Kursk.
Meanwhile the UK foreign office said it is ‘monitoring the situation’ in Russia ‘closely’ tonight while Washington confirmed that President Biden had been brief on the situation.
Speaking to reporters from his holiday in South Lake Tahoe, California, President Biden said he is not surprised by the unconfirmed report.
He said: ‘I don’t know for a fact what has happened but I am not surprised. There is not much in Russia that Putin is not behind but I don’t know enough to know the answer.’
Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the reports suggest that the Russian president is ‘sending a very loud message’.
She wrote on X, formally known as Twitter: ‘The speed at which the Russian Govt has confirmed Yevgeny Prigozhin was on a plane that crashed on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg should tell us everything we need to know.
‘Reports Russian Air Defence shot down the plane suggests Putin is sending a very loud message.’
Into the night, the road near to where the plane rash remained closed and guarded by Russian police officers.
