Wagner Group plane crashes in Russia, killing 10

A plane owned by the Russian mercenary Wagner Group crashed Wednesday, killing all 10 people on board. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was included on the plane’s passenger list, but it was not immediately clear if he was among the dead.

The business jet was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it went down. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Three pilots and seven passengers were on board.

The plane went down in the Tver region, about 100 miles northwest of Moscow but still 300 miles southeast of St. Petersburg.

Prigozhin became an international figure when he attempted to lead a rebellion against Vladimir Putin over Putin’s management of the war in Ukraine, where Prigozhin’s men often fought on the front lines.

The revolt was stopped short of success, and Prigozhin cut a deal where he was exiled to Belarus. On Monday, he’d appeared in a video seeking to recruit soldiers to the mercenary group for the purpose of “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free.”

With News Wire Services