Investigators Trawl Site of Plane Crash Believed to Have Killed Prigozhin

Emergency specialists carry a body bag near wreckages of the private jet linked to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin at the crash site in the Tver region, Russia, August 24, 2023. Kommersant Photo/Dmitry Lebedev via REUTERS
Emergency specialists carry a body bag near wreckages of the private jet linked to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin at the crash site in the Tver region, Russia, August 24, 2023. Kommersant Photo/Dmitry Lebedev via REUTERS
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Investigators Trawl Site of Plane Crash Believed to Have Killed Prigozhin

Emergency specialists carry a body bag near wreckages of the private jet linked to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin at the crash site in the Tver region, Russia, August 24, 2023. Kommersant Photo/Dmitry Lebedev via REUTERS
Emergency specialists carry a body bag near wreckages of the private jet linked to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin at the crash site in the Tver region, Russia, August 24, 2023. Kommersant Photo/Dmitry Lebedev via REUTERS

Crash investigators on Thursday picked through the wreckage of a jet said to have been carrying Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin that crashed with no survivors, two months after he led a mutiny against the army leadership.

Investigators opened a criminal probe but there was no official word on what may have caused Wednesday evening's crash, or even official confirmation of Prigozhin's death beyond a statement from the aviation authority saying he was on board.

The Kremlin and the Defense Ministry also made no comment on the fate of Prigozhin, 62, head of the Wagner mercenary group and a self-declared enemy of the army top brass over what he said was its incompetent prosecution of Russia's war in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin made a virtual statement to a summit of the BRICS nations in South Africa which his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was attending. Neither referenced the plane crash in which 10 people were said to have been killed.

The Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet, which had been flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg and was reported to have also been carrying senior members of Prigozhin's team, crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region north of Moscow.

A Reuters reporter at the crash site on Thursday morning saw men carrying away black body bags on stretchers. Part of the plane's tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area where forensic investigators had erected a tent.

Several Russian social media channels reported that the bodies were burned or disfigured beyond recognition and would need to be identified by DNA. The reports were picked up by independent Russian media, but the Associated Press was not able to independently confirm them.



Zelenskiy Says Ready to Exchange N. Korean Soldiers for Ukrainians Held in Russia

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
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Zelenskiy Says Ready to Exchange N. Korean Soldiers for Ukrainians Held in Russia

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can organize their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.
"In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It's only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others," Zelenskiy said on the social media platform X.
Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region, the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the nearly three-year-old war last autumn.
Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 troops from Russia's ally North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow's forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence, Reuters reported.
Zelenskiy has said Russian and North Korean forces had suffered heavy losses.
"Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un's soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia," Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men who are presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them is lying on a bed with bandaged hands, the other is sitting with a bandage on his jaw.
One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know he was fighting against Ukraine and had been told he was on a training exercise.
He said he hid in a shelter during the offensive and was found a couple of days later. He said that if he was ordered to return to North Korea, he would, but said he was ready to stay in Ukraine if given the chance.
Reuters could not verify the video.
Zelenskiy said that for those North Korean soldiers who did not wish to return home, there may be other options available and "those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean (language) will be given that opportunity."
Zelenskiy provided no specific details.