Will Vernon
BBC News, Moscow

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has so far remained tight-lipped on the reported death of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Last night, shortly after the news broke that Prigozhin was on board the stricken Embraer jet, Putin appeared at an event in the Kursk Region marking the anniversary of a famous World War Two battle.

During the event, he paid tribute to those Russians killed during the so-called ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

Unsurprisingly, there was no mention of Wagner or of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Putin may be waiting until an official version of events surrounding the plane crash is established.

The Kremlin leader is well-known for his “wait-and-see” attitude after major events – he rarely reacts immediately.

Mariko Oi
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The private jet that crashed in Russia, reportedly killing Wagner mercenary group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others was an Embraer Legacy 600.

The Brazil-based Embraer Legacy 600 entered service in 2002 with almost 300 jets produced so far.

The model has a very good safety record - it has had just one accident in more than 20 years of service, according to website International Aviation HQ.

The incident, which occurred in 2006 as one of the planes was flying from an Embraer factory in Brazil to the US, was blamed on human error rather than mechanical failure, the site says.

Manufacturing of the jet was discontinued in 2020.

Embraer has said it was aware of a Legacy 600 plane crash in Russia, but it did not have further information about the case.

Frank Gardner
BBC News, Security Correspondent

Without Prigozhin, Wagner in its present form is finished.

The Wagner chief's frequent, self-aggrandising appearances on the group's Telegram channel, dressed up as a soldier, bely the complex network of alliances he built up behind the scenes.

From Mali to the Middle East, this former hot dog salesman forged personal connections with people who enabled the Wagner group to successfully spread its tentacles across at least seven countries, notably in West Africa.

He also enjoyed the loyalty, perhaps even the devotion, of thousands of his mercenary troops.

This personal charisma, in stark contrast to the often dour demeanour of Russia’s military bosses, means he will be hard to replace.

Will Vernon
BBC News, Moscow

Russian emergency services have said that the bodies of all ten people on the Embraer Legacy jet have now been recovered.

According to the authorities, those on board include Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his second-in-command Dmitry Utkin - the man who gave the mercenary group its name.

Attention is now focused on what caused the crash.

Police have sealed off the area around the crash site and the Russian Aviation Authority has formed a special commission to look into it.

Many Russians were unsurprised when the news of Prigozhin’s reported death broke yesterday.

When Prigozhin launched a failed mutiny two months ago, he also challenged the authority of Vladimir Putin himself. And that’s something the Russian President does not forget easily.

The executive jet believed to be carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin showed no signs of trouble until a sudden drop in its final 30 seconds of received altitude, flight tracking data shows .

Ian Petchenik, who works for flightracker Flightradar24, told the Reuters news agency that the Embraer Legacy 600 jet made a “sudden downward vertical" at 15:19 GMT.

Then within about 30 seconds the aircraft plummeted more than 8,000 feet from its cruising altitude of 28,000 feet.

"Whatever happened, happened quickly," Petchenik said, before adding prior to the drop there was no indication anything was wrong with the aircraft.

Video shared on social media appears to show the aircraft falling out the sky with a trail of smoke following it.

Image source, Reuters

It was "pretty clear" that when a deal was cut between Prigozhin and the Kremlin to end the mutiny, Prigozhin "wasn't going to be allowed to walk for long", Ian Bremmer, founder of political risk consultancy Eurasia group told the BBC's Newsday programme.

If Prigozhin is indeed confirmed to have died in the crash, Bremmer says that it would show how "extremely calculated" Putin was.

"He took his time and waited until he could get Prigozhin in a much weaker position," Bremmer says.

"Putin allowed him to walk for about two months. I think that sends a very chilling message to anyone that would go after [Putin] in Russia".

Dmitry Utkin, Prigozhin's right-hand man and alleged co-founder of Wagner, was also on the passenger list of the crashed plane.

Utkin's public persona is somewhat clouded but he's reported to have served in the GRU - Russian military intelligence - until 2013 before joining the Slavonic Corps in Syria during its civil war.

The Wagner group allegedly gained its name from Utkin, coming from his military callsign of "Wagner". Utkin was said to be involved in Wagner operations in Ukraine in 2014 in Crimea and Donbas.

He's been accused of human rights abuses and has faced sanctions by the UK and New Zealand over the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Council of the European Union imposed restrictive measures against him and others associated with the Wagner Group in 2021.

Citing unnamed Belarusian sources, Ukraine's National Resistance Center is saying that some Wagner convoys appear to be heading towards Russia.

"The convoys are probably heading in the direction of the border with Russia, but the Belarusian special forces are trying to prevent their vehicles from leaving," it said in an update on Wednesday, hours after the plane crash that is presumed to have killed Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The BBC is not able to independently verify this.

The National Resistance Center was formed to resist Russia's invasion of Ukraine through non-violent means.

Following Prigozhin's failed mutiny against the Kremlin in June, the Wagner Group set up base camps in Belarus and formalised a collaboration with the Belarusian Defense Ministry.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Yevgeny Prigozhin founded the Wagner mercenary group in 2014.

The group first emerged in eastern Ukraine that year, at the start of the conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian proxies in the Donbas, and has since been involved in fighting in Syria and several African countries.

The private army ramped up recruitment in recent year.

In Ukraine, months of bitter fighting in the devastated city of Bakhmut is believed to have cost thousands of Wagner men's lives. Since the invasion, several of its members have been accused by Ukraine of committing war crimes.

In the weeks before Russia's 2022 invasion, it is thought Wagner carried out so-called "false flag" attacks in Ukraine, to give the Kremlin a pretext for invading. These are attacks which one side carries out but blames on its opponent.

Prigozhin, Wagner's leader, said the group had recruited 49,000 prisoners from Russian jails to fight in Ukraine.

Read more here.

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor

When Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner troops launched their insurrection two months ago, Vladimir Putin made his feelings more than clear.

He called it "treachery" and a "stab in the back" of Russia. He promised that the perpetrators would be punished.

So there was incredulity in Russia when they were not.

It made President Putin look weak.

Suddenly things look rather different.

Exactly two months on, Prigozhin is presumed dead after his private jet crashed and exploded in a field. Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin was on the same jet.

The Russian elite will shed few tears over Prigozhin's reported demise.

That goes for Russia's military leadership, whom Prigozhin had publicly and vocally condemned and whom he demanded be sacked.

You can read Russia editor Steve Rosenberg's analysis in full on the link below:

• Wagner challenged Putin and now its leader is presumed dead

Video shared on social media appears to show the moment that a plane crashes in Kuzhenkino, Russia.

According to Russian authorities, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list of the plane that crashed in the area.

BBC Verify has been able to confirm the location as Kuzhenkino, Tver region.

Welcome to our readers in Asia. If you are just joining us, we've been following the crash of a private jet that was supposedly carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin among other Wagner leaders.

Here's what we know so far:

• Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead after Russia's aviation authority said his name was on the crashed plane's passenger list
• The aircraft owned by Prigozhin was flying from Moscow to St Petersburg with seven passengers and three crew when it crashed in the Tver region. All 10 bodies have been recovered, reports say
• Russian state media said the aircraft caught fire on hitting the ground having being in the air for less than half an hour
• However, Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone claims the jet had been shot down by the Russian military
• Russian officials have launched a criminal investigation into the cause of the crash
• Prigozhin was a key alley of Russian president Vladimir Putin, but their relationship soured after Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against Russian military leaders in June
• When news of the crash broke, Putin was speaking at an event in Kursk to mark the 80th anniversary of a Soviet war victory over Nazi Germany

Image source, EPA

As news broke of the plane crash which is presumed to have killed Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin was speaking at an event in Kursk to mark the 80th anniversary of a Soviet war victory over Nazi Germany.

The battle in 1943 is considered the largest tank battle in history.

Mr Putin did not mention the plane crash, but he did pay tribute to Russian soldiers "who are fighting bravely and resolutely" in Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, Mr Putin virtually attended the Brics summit in South Africa where he said he was committed to ending the war in Ukraine which he blamed the West for starting.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the head of the Wagner mercenary group, which he established in 2014.

A wealthy businessman with a criminal record, he was known as "Putin’s chef" because he provided catering for the Kremlin.

In June he led his troops on a short-lived mutiny, after they seized control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and moved towards Moscow, with the stated aim of removing the military leadership.

However, Prigozhin stopped the advance after negotiations with the Kremlin, which were mediated by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Under a deal to end the mutiny, charges against Mr Prigozhin were dropped and he was offered a move to Belarus.

He has kept a low profile since then, although a video released a few days ago suggested he was in an African country.

Read more: Yevgeny Prigozhin - from Putin's chef to rebel in chief

Russia's aviation authority has said that Prigozhin's name was on the plane's passenger list, and a Wagner-linked Telegram group has claimed he was killed in the crash.

But with no way to independently verify Prigozhin's death at the moment, some analysts are urging caution.

Keir Giles, from the London-based think tank Chatham House, says there is “one huge caveat” we need to consider.

“It’s been announced that a passenger by the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board - but it is also known that multiple individuals have changed their name to Yevgeny Prigozhin, as part of his efforts to obfuscate his travels,” Giles says.

He adds that until we know “for certain” that it’s the right Prigozhin, “let’s not be surprised if he pops up shortly in a new video from Africa”.

The private jet that crashed was carrying seven passengers and three crew.

All 10 people on board were killed, according to preliminary information. All the bodies are said to have been recovered.

Russia's aviation agency identified the seven passengers as: Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin, Sergei Propustin, Yevgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin, Valery Chekalov and Nikolai Matuseyev.

The crew members were identified as Captain Alexei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.

How Russia reacted after Prigozhin plane crashpublished at 01:28 British Summer Time 24 August 2023

01:28 BST 24 August 2023

Will Vernon
BBC News, Moscow

Image source, Reuters

Russia is a country full of surprises.

People here were shocked this summer after drones attacked the centre of Moscow on several occasions, causing explosions and damage to buildings.

Then, the Russian rouble took an unexpected tumble - briefly tipping the dollar rate to over 100 roubles.

But today, as the news broke that Yevgeny Prigozhin's plane had fallen out of the sky, crashing in a fireball in Russia's Tver Region, most people were far from shocked. In fact, most Russians were probably surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

Speculation had been swirling for weeks in Russia about exactly what fate awaited Yevgeny Prigozhin. Exactly two months ago, the Wagner boss launched his brief mutiny.

Around an hour after the crash, the Russian Federal Aviation Agency Rosaviatsiya released a statement confirming that Yevgeny Prigozhin's name was on the passenger manifest.

That is unusually quick for Rosaviatsiya: the agency is usually much slower to respond to such incidents. That raised eyebrows here.

Read more here.

Image source, PA

British MP Alicia Kearns - who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee - has suggested the speed that Russian authorities confirmed Prigozhin was onboard "should tell us everything we need to know".

On X, formerly known as Twitter, she said: "For Putin there is one unforgivable sin: the betrayal of Putin and Russia.

"He hunts down those he perceives to be traitors, (including) on British shores, such as Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal.

"Now Yevgeny Prigozhin has been added to that list, ending Putin's humiliation."

The Daily Telegraph reports that UK security sources believe the aircraft was downed by the FSB - Russia's domestic intelligence agency - following orders from the Russian president.

Meanwhile, a government spokesperson says the UK is closely monitoring the situation.

The BBC's analysis editor Ros Atkins takes a look at the rise of Yevgeny Prigozhin from hotdog salesman to Wagner boss.