Media Wire

Officials: US believes missile inside Russia likely shot down Wagner head’s presumed plane

The United States believes a surface-to-air missile originating from inside Russia likely shot down the plane presumed to be carrying mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on Wednesday, two US officials told Reuters on Thursday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter, stressed that the information was still preliminary and under review.

Prigozhin was on the passenger manifest of the Embraer private jet that crashed on Wednesday in the Tver Region, en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. All seven passengers and three crew members perished.

Authorities are still working to identify the bodies, but Prigozhin is presumed to be among them, along with six other Wagner leaders.

The New York Times has also reported that American and other Western officials has stated an explosion on the plane likely brought down the aircraft.

A definitive conclusion has not been reached, but an explosion is the leading theory of what caused the plane to crash in a field between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The blast could have been caused by a bomb or other device planted on the aircraft, though other theories, like adulterated fuel, were also being explored, the officials said.

The incident happened exactly two months after Wagner’s failed mutiny against the Russian military. Prigozhin had accused the Russian Defense Ministry of attacking a Wagner base and sent a convoy of troops toward Moscow, while taking over the military command post in Rostov-on-Don.

Russia President Vladimir Putin condemned the mutiny as tantamount to treason and had a criminal case opened against Prigozhin. The charges were dropped within days, however, as Prigozhin agreed to disband much of Wagner and leave with the rest to Belarus and Africa, as part of a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

IFP Media Wire

Reports and views published in the Media Wire section have been retrieved from other news agencies and websites, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website. The IFP may change the headlines of the reports in a bid to make them compatible with its own style of covering Iran News, and does not make any changes to the content. The source and URL of all reports and news stories are mentioned at the bottom of each article.

Recent Posts

Iranian journalist Zeynab Alipour passes at 33

Zeynab Alipour, a dedicated journalist for Jam-e Jam newspaper, passed away on Saturday evening due…

1 hour ago

Russia hits Ukraine’s power grid in biggest missile attack in months

Blasts rang out across Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other cities early on Sunday, as Russia…

5 hours ago

At least 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid on northern Gaza

At least 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a five-story residential building in…

5 hours ago

Biden meets Xi, condemns North Korean soldiers dispatch to Russia for fight against Ukraine

Outgoing US President Joe Biden met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Lima, Peru, to discuss…

5 hours ago

Human rights group documents Israel’s murders, extrajudicial executions of Gazans

A human rights group has documented horrific premeditated murders and arbitrary extrajudicial executions of Palestinians…

6 hours ago

Iran says daily gas output from South Pars hit all-time high

Iran’s state-run Pars Oil and Gas Company has announced that daily production from the South…

9 hours ago