Prigozhin's plane arrives in Belarus
Yevgeny Prigozhin's business jet flew from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Belarus, and another plane arrived there from St Petersburg.
Source: Belaruski Hajun, an independent Belarusian military monitoring media outlet, citing Flight Radar data
Details: Yevgeny Prigozhin's business jet (registration number RA-02795) landed at the Machulishchy airbase near Minsk at 07:40.
Another plane arrived from Russia: a BAe 125-800B business jet with registration number RA-02878 departed from St Petersburg and landed at Machulishchy airbase at 07:58.
On 25 June, after the rebellion, the plane of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin flew from Rostov-on-Don to St Petersburg and back. Prigozhin was last seen in public on the evening of 24 June, leaving the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov.
Background:
- On the evening of 23 June, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagner mercenaries’ rear camps. He therefore deployed 25,000 of his mercenaries "to restore justice".
- On 24 June, the Wagner mercenaries took control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don and seized military facilities in Voronezh, and were on their way to Moscow, and the Russian capital was already preparing for defence.
- In an emergency address, dictator Vladimir Putin stated about betrayal and the attempts to "organise a rebellion". Ukrainian intelligence had information that Putin had urgently left Moscow for his residence in Valdai.
- In the evening of the same day, after a conversation with Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Prigozhin said that his mercenaries were returning to the field camps. The criminal case against Prigozhin in Russia was promised to be closed, and he was to "go to Belarus".
- According to Russian pro-war media and telegram channels, during the rebellion, Wagner mercenaries shot down an Ilyushin Il-22 aircraft (command post) and six Russian army helicopters, killing 13 to 20 people. In addition, 19 houses and roads were damaged by the march of Prigozhin's private army in Russia.
- On 26 June, Prigozhin stated that the purpose of his march on Moscow was to protect the Wagner group from destruction, as the mercenaries had to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence by 1 July, and they did not want to. He also stated that he stopped to "avoid shedding Russian blood" when Lukashenko suggested that he find a solution for the continued operation of the Wagner PMC in a "legitimate jurisdiction".
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