Pentagon Rejects Idea Missile Brought Down Plane Carrying Russian Mercenary Boss Prigozhin

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, speaks to a camera at an unknown location in an image released on Aug. 21, 2023. (Razgruzka_Vagnera telegram channel via AP)

Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was likely killed in a plane crash in Russia but it is currently unclear how, or if, he was assassinated, according to the Pentagon.

Mr. Prigozhin, who led an aborted mutiny against Russian military leadership in June, was first reported killed in the crash by Russian authorities on Aug. 23.

The claim quickly spurred speculation that Mr. Prigozhin was assassinated by the Kremlin.

The Department of Defense claims that Mr. Prigozhin was likely killed in the crash “based on a variety of factors,” but will not currently confirm whether the crash was deliberate, according to Pentagon spokesperson Gen. Pat Ryder.

“Our initial assessment is that it’s likely Prigozhin was killed,” Gen. Ryder said during an Aug. 24 press briefing. “We’re continuing to assess the situation.”

“I’m not going to have any further information on the how, or why the airplane crashed,” Gen. Ryder added.

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Press widely speculated that Mr. Prigozhin was assassinated by the Kremlin, with both the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press suggesting this was the case based on unnamed sources.

Though Gen. Ryder did not confirm whether Mr. Prigozhin was assassinated, he did say that initial reporting that Mr. Prigozhin’s plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile was incorrect.

“We don’t have any information to indicate right now the press reporting stating that there was some type of surface-to-air missile that took down the plane,” Gen. Ryder said.

“We assess that information to be inaccurate. [There is] Nothing to indicate, no information to suggest that there was a surface-to-air missile.”

Prigozhin Against Military Leadership

Mr. Prigozhin rose to infamy for his aborted mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June.

Over the course of three days, he led a detachment of his mercenary fighters from the front lines of Ukraine to seize the Russian town of Rostov-on-Don and then marched on Moscow before ultimately turning back at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s request.

Wagner’s 25,000 troops were subsequently called upon to surrender their heavy weapons.

Mr. Putin claimed at the time that Mr. Prigozhin has brought Russia to the brink of civil war, and condemned him as a traitor, comparing Wagner’s rebellion to the 1917 revolution, which destroyed the Russian Empire and then brought the communist Bolsheviks to power.

In a series of viral speeches on Telegram, however, Mr. Prigozhin said that his mutiny was not against Russia, but its corrupt military leadership, whose incompetence he blamed for months of mass ammunition shortages and an overwhelming number of untrained conscripts being sent to the front lines in Ukraine.

Moreover, Mr. Prigozhin claimed that Russian forces had conducted airstrikes against Wagner’s rear bases, killing those fighting for Russia.

The Russian defense ministry denied the allegations.

Following the alleged incident, Mr. Prigozhin vowed to purge the “evil” from Russia’s military leadership, and announced his “march for justice” from Ukraine to Moscow.

Mr. Prigozhin added at the time that he believed the mutiny was necessary to remove “senile clowns” from the Russian bureaucracy to “end the disgrace” of Russia’s losses in Ukraine.

“We’re saving Russia,” Mr. Prigozhin said.

Putin Planned to Kill Wagner Leaders

Mr. Prigozhin, an ex-convict and restaurateur, helped to found the Wagner mercenary group in 2014 after serving Putin as a caterer for the Kremlin.

The company’s troops have since fought throughout numerous theaters, including in the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, Sudan, and Syria, in addition to Ukraine.

Wagner is designated by several nations as a terrorist group and has been widely condemned for its many human rights violations, including the frequent use of sledgehammers as a method of torture and execution.

The group has nevertheless gained a large cult following in Russia for its nationalist rhetoric and refusal to cede ground in Ukraine, even as the Russian military surrendered whole cities at a time.

That fact did not stop Mr. Putin from planning to kill Wagner’s senior leadership, however.

Mr. Putin allegedly planned to kill mutinous Wagner fighters marching on Moscow in June before being talked down, according to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

It is unclear how Mr. Putin planned to carry out his plan, but Mr. Lukashenko said during a June 27 meeting with military officials that the decision had been made to kill all the Wagner fighters who had mutinied.

“I also understood a brutal decision had been made, and it was the undertone of Putin’s address, to ‘wipe out’ the mutineers,” Lukashenko said, using a slang phrase popular among Russian criminal groups to refer to killing someone.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was not surprised to learn of Mr. Prigozhin’s death, and hinted at the Kremlin’s legacy of killing those who go against it.

“You may recall, when I was asked about this by you, I said, ‘I’d be careful what I drink and what I rode in,’” President Biden told reporters on Aug. 23.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised.”