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.



Trump Picks Mike Huckabee, Pro-Israel Conservative, as Ambassador

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)
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Trump Picks Mike Huckabee, Pro-Israel Conservative, as Ambassador

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was nominating former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel, tapping a staunchly pro-Israel conservative whose choice could signal future US policy toward conflicts in the Middle East.

An evangelical Christian, Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout his political career and a longtime defender of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. A former Republican presidential hopeful, Huckabee hosted a weekly Fox News TV show for six years ending in 2015.

"There’s no such thing as an occupation," Huckabee said in a 2017 interview with CNN, in which he referred to the West Bank by its biblical names Judea and Samaria.

Evangelicals are an overwhelmingly pro-Israel part of Trump’s base and voted heavily in favor of him in the Nov. 5 election.

Trump's announcement of the nomination drew immediate praise from senior Israeli officials but was likely to be panned by Palestinians, whose nationalist cause Huckabee has denigrated in the past.

"He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!" Trump said in a statement.

Huckabee, 69, would take on one of Washington's most sensitive diplomatic posts at a time when Israel is fighting the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon while facing off against regional arch-foe Iran.

Huckabee has criticized President Joe Biden for pressuring Israel to moderate its conduct of the Gaza war and has opposed the current Democratic administration's calls for a ceasefire there.

"If a person is pro-Israel, how can you be pro-Biden because the Biden administration has made it very clear they will make concessions to Hamas," Huckabee said in an interview in March on News Nation.

ISRAELI OFFICIALS HAIL NOMINATION

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies celebrated the election of Trump, a staunch but sometimes unpredictable ally of Israel. In his first term the Republican president-elect delivered major wins for the Israeli leader.

Members of Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, which includes pro-settler parties that oppose Palestinian statehood, hailed Huckabee's nomination.

"I look forward to working with you to strengthen the bond between our peoples," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X. "As a longstanding friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem - I hope you will feel very much at home."

Trump has strongly backed Netanyahu's goal of destroying Hamas but has called for Israel to finish the job quickly. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East but has not said how.

If his first term is any indication, Trump is likely to pursue a strongly pro-Israel approach, going even beyond the solid support given by Biden to Washington's top regional ally.

Huckabee, who has led evangelical tours to Israel for years, has been a supporter of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, which Palestinians want as part of an independent state that would include the Gaza Strip.

Most of the international community views as illegal the settlements on the West Bank land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Huckabee served as Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007. He fell short in bids for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and 2016.

His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the current governor of Arkansas. She served as Trump's White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019.