2023 Wagner Group plane crash — 23 August 2023 accident involving the private jet of Yevgeny Prigozhin in Russia
The crash killed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin two months after his armed rebellion, with Western intelligence suggesting political assassination.
Key Facts
- Date
- 23 August 2023
- Aircraft type
- Embraer Legacy 600 business jet
- People on board
- 10 persons
- Survivors
- 0 persons
- Distance from Moscow
- approximately 100 km
- Aircraft associated with Prigozhin since
- 2018
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Yevgeny Prigozhin had led an armed rebellion by the Wagner Group against Russian military leadership exactly two months before the crash. His open defiance of the Russian Defense Ministry and President Vladimir Putin was widely cited as a motive for foul play, and Western intelligence agencies concluded that an explosion was the likely cause of the crash.
On 23 August 2023, an Embraer Legacy 600 jet carrying ten people, including Wagner Group leaders Prigozhin, Dmitry Utkin, and Valery Chekalov, crashed near Kuzhenkino in Tver Oblast, Russia. Tracking data showed unusual altitude variations and a dramatic descent before impact, with visual evidence and intelligence reports pointing to structural failure caused by an onboard explosion.
All ten people aboard were killed, eliminating the top leadership of the Wagner Group. The incident drew widespread international speculation that Putin had ordered a politically motivated assassination. The deaths of Prigozhin, Utkin, and Chekalov were added to a pattern of suspicious Russia-related deaths documented since 2022, deepening scrutiny of Kremlin conduct.