According to a report by Reuters on Friday (August 25), a second aircraft associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner Group, is not connected to the Russian mercenary organization and has never been linked to it. This revelation comes in the wake of a private jet carrying Prigozhin and other high-ranking Wagner figures crashing on Wednesday evening, resulting in no survivors. Certain Russian media sources had reported that a second plane, identified by the tail number RA-02748, was allegedly associated with Wagner and airborne at the time of the crash.
Sergey Trifonov, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jetica LLC, stated to Reuters that their aircraft had no association with Wagner. Trifonov affirmed, “Neither the aircraft itself nor its passengers have any connection to Wagner, now or previously.” Trifonov revealed that the plane had not been leased, though he refrained from disclosing its owner’s identity.
With reference to flight tracking data, Reuters detailed that RA-02748 was landing in St. Petersburg on Wednesday evening, arriving from Moscow, around the time the plane believed to be carrying Prigozhin experienced its crash. Subsequently, the aircraft took off back to Moscow approximately 20 minutes later.
Regarding allegations from the West that Prigozhin’s demise had been orchestrated by the Kremlin, the Russian government dismissed these claims on Friday. The Kremlin labeled these accusations as “complete falsehoods.” Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, stated, “There is currently a significant amount of speculation concerning the plane crash and the tragic loss of the passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Naturally, in the West, all of this speculation is presented from a well-known perspective. All of it is an utter falsehood, and it’s imperative to rely exclusively on factual information while addressing this matter.”
Peskov added, “Yesterday, the president mentioned that he’s awaiting the conclusions of the ongoing investigation, which will conclude shortly, and we will then be informed of the specifics.”
Russian investigators have initiated an inquiry into the incident. However, they have yet to disclose their suspicions regarding the sudden descent of the aircraft or officially confirm the identities of the ten bodies recovered from the wreckage.
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