A private jet with 10 people on board has crashed in Russia – with the man who led a short-lived mutiny against the country’s top brass on the passenger list.
Russian authorities said Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin boarded the flight, though there has been no absolute confirmation of his death.
The Russian news agency Interfax said 10 bodies had been recovered from the site.
Footage from the scene – about 185 miles north of Moscow – shows flames leaping from the wreckage.
Here’s what we know so far.
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Prigozhin: What we know so far
What happened?
A private Embraer Legacy aircraft was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg when it crashed.
Russian authorities said there were no survivors.
Russian state-owned TASS news agency reported seven passengers and three crew were on board the Embraer aircraft and were all killed.
According to Reuters, there are reports they were attending a meeting with officials from Russia’s defence ministry.
A Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner Group has said Prigozhin was killed in the plane crash. It called him a hero and a patriot who had died at the hands of unidentified people described as “traitors to Russia”.
The plane came down near the village of Kuzhenkino Tver – and unconfirmed reports suggest it belonged to Prigozhin.
Who was on board?
A list of those on board has been published by Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency.
Russia’s civil aviation authority said Prigozhin was on the passenger list, and later added that he was travelling with Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin.
Utkin was Prigozhin’s right-hand man – a shadowy figure covered in Nazi tattoos including a swastika and lightning bolts.
Prigozhin’s security chief Valeriy Chekalov was also said to be on the flight – with the other four passengers named as Sergey Propustin, Yevgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin and Nikolay Matuseev.
Sky’s Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay says that, if the deaths are confirmed: “That is essentially the top echelons of the Wagner Group taken out in one fell swoop – and it is exactly two months to the day that Prigozhin launched his very short-lived mutiny.”
The crew members on the doomed flight have been named as commander Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.
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Analysis: Russia jet crash footage
What could have caused the crash?
Our military analyst Sean Bell said plane crashes are traditionally in bad weather – and conditions were clear at the time.
Referring to footage of the incident, he added: “This aircraft looks as if it’s completely out of control – it’s spiralling down, there are vapour trails coming from it – all of which indicates it’s had some sort of catastrophic failure in the air.”
Magnay says there have been reports of a second plane behind the one that crashed that was zig-zagging through the sky.
Security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke says the way the plane came down doesn’t indicate there was a bomb on board – but it did look like an aircraft that had been hit by something outside that did enough damage to wreck the controls.
Flightradar24 says data from the aircraft shows it descended sharply about 33 minutes into the flight.
Read more:
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Putin’s revenge was a dish best served cold
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‘Putin solved problem that was Prigozhin’
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Once a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin founded Wagner – a private military company whose fighters were on the ground in Ukraine.
But in recent months, Prigozhin had been a vocal critic of Russia’s defence ministry, as well as top generals, in their handling of the invasion.
He led a short-lived mutiny against the country’s top military brass in June – and at the time, he was described by Mr Putin as a “traitor”.
The rebellion ended when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stepped in to broker a deal, with Prigozhin agreeing to relocate to Belarus.
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Wagner Group ‘in Africa’
What has happened since the rebellion?
Earlier this week, Prigozhin made a video address for the first time since the aborted mutiny.
Wearing camouflage and holding a rifle, he appeared to be in Africa – and talked about Russia making the continent “free”.
Prigozhin spoke of how Wagner was tackling terrorist groups in the region, and “making life a nightmare for ISIS and al Qaeda and other bandits”.
His mercenary group has been accused by the UN and other agencies of widespread human rights abuses.
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Putin pins medals as Prigozhin jet crashes
Where is Vladimir Putin?
Amid reports that Prigozhin is dead, Mr Putin was attending a concert in Kursk.
The event is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Soviet troops’ victory in the Battle of Kursk.
Soldiers joined the president on stage, with Mr Putin pinning medals on troops.
The Russian president has also been participating in the BRICS summit – appearing virtually alongside leaders from Brazil, India, China and South Africa.
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‘We absolutely saw this coming’
What has been the reaction to the plane crash?
Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat, told Sky News that the death of Prigozhin would benefit Mr Putin.
And Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, said he believed such an incident involving the mercenary chief was “inevitable” following his failed revolt.
Mr Steele claims a contract had been put out on Prigozhin by members of Russia’s business community in recent weeks.
Sean Bell has said the crash could be a ploy to let the Wagner boss live peacefully in exile.
“This might have been an engineered story for Prigozhin to slip quietly away and live in exile somewhere, under a wig and with a degree of privacy,” he added.
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Biden ‘not surprised’ by jet crash
US President Joe Biden, who is on holiday in California, has been briefed.
Adrienne Watson, America’s national security spokesperson, said: “We have seen the reports. If confirmed, no one should be surprised.”
And Alicia Kearns, who chairs the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Sky News that the speed at which the Russian government confirmed Prigozhin was on the passenger list “should tell us everything we need to know”.
Reports have suggested that the plane was shot down by Russian air defence forces, and the British MP says this suggests Mr Putin is “sending a very loud message”.
A UK government spokesperson said the Foreign Office is “monitoring the situation closely”.
Was this an act of revenge from Putin?
Many see Prigozhin’s reported death as a response from the Kremlin to Wagner’s brief armed rebellion against the Russian military.
General Lord Richard Dannatt, ex-chief of the British army, told Sky News Mr Putin was “most likely” behind the plane crash.
He added that even if it wasn’t ordered by the Russian president himself, “it was by someone who knows what Putin would have wished”.
Sky’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn said “treason does not pay” and “Putin has never tolerated traitors”.
“He will hope the presumed assassination will draw a line under that embarrassing mutiny and deter any other threats and that it will bolster his power which has been weakened by the failed coup.”
What does this mean for the war in Ukraine?
Prof Clarke says that – if Prigozhin is dead – it will have a “marginal” effect on the conflict, but it will show that Russia is a “gangster state”.
He explained: “It is run in a gangster way from the top, right through the very bottom with corruption down at the lowest possible level.”
The security and defence analyst expects more details to emerge in the coming hours – and said caution is needed.
“It is not obvious he is dead at the moment, he probably is, but there is still some plausible idea this might be some sort of setup,” he added.
The crash has been reported on Russian state television.
He may not be the one to sit down with Vladimir Putin, but Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, summed up the horror of Sunday’s ballistic missile strikes on Sumy succinctly.
“Today’s Palm Sunday attack by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency,” he said.
“As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong.”
Ukraine war latest: At least 34 people killed
Vladimir Putin gave up on decency long before he started this war.
What he seems to be risking by attacks of this scale is Donald Trump‘s patience.
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Russia launches strike on Ukraine
He does not seem to mind if strikes like this make a mockery of US attempts to bring the two warring parties to the table.
He does not seem to care if he alienates his US counterpart, who has been strangely predisposed to fawn over him to date.
Perhaps he is raising the stakes as high as he can to illustrate his strength of hand: Strikes on civilians damage Ukrainian morale – even if they are hardly battlefield wins – and on the battlefield, he is pushing ahead and does not want to stop.
At least 34 people, including two children, were killed in Sumy on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Perhaps he knows that if he keeps up his military momentum, President Trump will tire of a conflict he realises he cannot solve and let the matter slip while staying true to his MAGA-economic priorities by letting funds for Ukraine dry up.
Perhaps he thinks President Trump is so keen on a rapprochement with Russia, on the big Putin-Trump bilateral, that the details, the civilian deaths along the way, will all be by-the-by when that long-sought photo-op finally happens.
Whatever it is, President Putin seems to be in no rush to get things settled.
His spokesman told a Russian state reporter on Sunday that talks were under way at several levels but that “of course, it is impossible to expect any instant results”.
Withdrawing his troops would get instant results. But that is not what Vladimir Putin wants.
Read more:
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His war economy is working for him, and he has the attention of the one country he considers a worthy adversary, the United States.
In the meantime, this attack reinforces why President Zelenskyy’s plea for air defence systems is his top priority. And why a ceasefire cannot come soon enough.
At least 34 people – including two children – have been killed after a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian city.
The country’s state emergency service said another 117 people have been injured, with 15 children among them, in the northeastern city of Sumy.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry later added that one of the children injured was a baby girl born this year, saying “even newborns are targets for Russia’s crimes”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also shared videos on Telegram of the aftermath of the attack on social media, showing dead bodies in the middle of a city street near a destroyed bus.
As it happened: Russian attack is ‘signal’ to US and Ukraine
Two children were killed in the strike. Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Russia ‘dragging out this war’ – Zelenskyy
The Ukrainian president said on social media “only scoundrels can act like this” and that “tough reaction from the world is needed”.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” he added. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible.
“Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and air bombs. We need the kind of attitude towards Russia that a terrorist deserves.”
Andriy Kovalenko, a security official who runs Ukraine’s centre for countering disinformation, noted the strike came after a visit to Moscow by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
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From Saturday: Putin meets Trump envoy for talks
US official: ‘This is wrong’
Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump‘s envoy for the Ukraine war, said the attack crosses “any line of decency” and that “there are scores of civilian dead and wounded”.
He added: “As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war.”
In response to Mr Kellogg, Mr Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvynm asked: “Don’t you think it’s time to smack the Moscow mule across the nose with a 2X4?”.
Later, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the strike was “horrifying” and a “tragic reminder of why President Trump and his Administration are putting so much time and effort into trying to end this war and achieve durable peace”.
Pic: AP
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy added he was “horrified” by Russia’s “barbaric strike” on Sumy, and called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
Meanwhile, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “cruelty struck again” and called the strike a “blatant violation of international law”.
It came hours before a separate Russian strike killed three people in the central district of the southern city of Kherson.
Read more:
Why Putin seems to be raising the stakes
2025 ‘critical year’ for Ukraine, warns minister
The local governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said a 68-year-old woman was injured and died in hospital and that a 48-year-old man also died after “the occupiers dropped an explosive device from a drone”.
A 62-year-old woman was also killed “as a result of the shelling”.
On Saturday, a Russian guided bomb hit a house in the northeastern Ukrainian town of Kupiansk on Saturday, injuring four people.
Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram that three others could be trapped under rubble.
It comes after Russian diplomats accused each other of violating a tentative US-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.
“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said, adding that Moscow would provide a list of Kyiv’s attacks from the past three weeks.
Andrii Sybiha, his Ukrainian counterpart, dismissed the claim saying on Saturday that Russia launched “almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 [exploding] drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.
He may not be the one to sit down with Vladimir Putin, but Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, summed up the horror of Sunday’s ballistic missile strikes on Sumy succinctly.
“Today’s Palm Sunday attack by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency,” he said.
“As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong.”
Ukraine war latest: At least 34 people killed
Vladimir Putin gave up on decency long before he started this war.
What he seems to be risking by attacks of this scale is Donald Trump‘s patience.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Russia launches strike on Ukraine
He does not seem to mind if strikes like this make a mockery of US attempts to bring the two warring parties to the table.
He does not seem to care if he alienates his US counterpart, who has been strangely predisposed to fawn over him to date.
Perhaps he is raising the stakes as high as he can to illustrate his strength of hand: Strikes on civilians damage Ukrainian morale – even if they are hardly battlefield wins – and on the battlefield, he is pushing ahead and does not want to stop.
At least 34 people, including two children, were killed in Sumy on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Perhaps he knows that if he keeps up his military momentum, President Trump will tire of a conflict he realises he cannot solve and let the matter slip while staying true to his MAGA-economic priorities by letting funds for Ukraine dry up.
Perhaps he thinks President Trump is so keen on a rapprochement with Russia, on the big Putin-Trump bilateral, that the details, the civilian deaths along the way, will all be by-the-by when that long-sought photo-op finally happens.
Whatever it is, President Putin seems to be in no rush to get things settled.
His spokesman told a Russian state reporter on Sunday that talks were under way at several levels but that “of course, it is impossible to expect any instant results”.
Withdrawing his troops would get instant results. But that is not what Vladimir Putin wants.
Read more:
The art of doing a deal with Trump
2025 ‘critical year’ for Ukraine, warns official
His war economy is working for him, and he has the attention of the one country he considers a worthy adversary, the United States.
In the meantime, this attack reinforces why President Zelenskyy’s plea for air defence systems is his top priority. And why a ceasefire cannot come soon enough.
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