A plane carrying Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin reportedly crashed on Wednesday in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow. All 10 people on-board the plane were killed, according to the ministry’s preliminary information.
Meanwhile, a video showing a plane on fire plummeting from the sky has gone viral on social media. Many users claim that it is the final moments of Prigozhin’s plane crash.
A Facebook user has shared this video with a text: “It’s pretty clear to me that this plane in Russia was targeted. JUST IN – Wagner boss Prigozhin jet on fire before crashing, new video emerges.”
This Facebook post can be seen here.
It is being widely shared on Facebook and X with a similar claim.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be Misleading.
Running the keyframes of the video through Reverse Image Search, we came across the same video uploaded on YouTube in June 2023, with a title: “Plane crash near Voronezh.” It suggests that the viral video is not related to mercenary chief Prigozhin’s plane crash.
With a keyword search, our NM team spotted the same video uploaded on the official YouTube handle of Daily Mail, dated June 26, with a title: “Wagner soldiers shoot down Russian plane during attempted coup.” As per its description, the video shows a Russian Air Force AN-26 plane shot down by a Wagner soldier. Other media houses have also reported the same. Click here to view the video report.
According to the BBC report, the Wagner Group rebelled on June 23, 2023, following rising tensions between the Russian Ministry of Defence and Prigozhin. At that time, this military group shot down seven Russian aircraft, resulting in the deaths of 13 airmen.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral video is from June 2023 when the Wagner soldiers shot down a Russian Air Force AN-26 plane. It has nothing to do with the recent plane crash of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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