AA month and a half after the death of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash in Russia, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin publicly stated that shrapnel had been discovered in the remains of the crash victims. The head of the investigative commission informed him of the findings a few days ago, Putin said on Thursday. “Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of the crash victims,” he said. At the same time, Putin claimed: “There was no external influence on the plane.”
The private plane with the head of the Russian mercenary group on board crashed on August 23rd during a flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg. In addition to the Wagner boss, his deputy Dmitri Utkin and eight other people also died.
The private plane is said to have crashed in the Tver region
Source: picture alliance/dpa/Investigative Committee of Russia/XinHua/Uncredited
Russian investigators did not comment on whether they believed an assassination attempt, a technical defect or human error were the likely cause of the crash. Ukraine and Western countries had expressed suspicion that it was an act of revenge by the Kremlin. Moscow rejected this.
Prigozhin fell out of favor with Putin after his Wagner troupe’s uprising against the Russian military leadership on June 23rd. The Kremlin boss viewed the Wagner boss as a traitor.
