A private jet carrying Wagner mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been shot down over Russian airspace, according to media reports..All 10 people aboard the jet where reported killed..Prigozhin's second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, was also killed in the crash..Prigozhin, 62 lead the Wagner Group, a mercenary force hired by Russia for engagement in the war against Ukraine, including the engagement in Bakhmut..But Prigozhin rebelled over what he said was a lack of support from Russia and started to march on Moscow..He claimed he has taken over a Russia military installation at Rustov-on-Don in the southern part of the country and that he is marching on Moscow to meet with defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Vladimir Putin..“We are patriots of our Motherland, we fought and are fighting,” Prigozhin said in audio messages. “And no one is going to turn themselves in at the request of the president, the FSB [Russian security], or anyone else.”Putin had harsh words for the “armed rebellion” in an address to citizens on national TV, saying it was “a stab in the back of our country and our people.”.“Everyone who deliberately embarked on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, embarked on the path of blackmail and terrorist methods will suffer inevitable punishment and answer both before the law and before our people,” Putin said..“Our armed forces and other state bodies have been given the necessary orders. Additional antiterrorist measures are now being introduced in Moscow and a number of other regions.”But as tanks rolled into defensive positions around Moscow on Saturday, the head of Wagner announced he was stopping his advance on the capital city to "avoid bloodshed.".In a public video in the spring, Prigozhin pointed towards bodies of his fallen men and criticized Russia for not arming him adequately for the job. ."These are someone's fathers and someone's sons," Prigozhin said. "The scum that doesn't give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.”.He eventually agreed to go into exile in Belarus.....more to come
