Ukraine Russia War: ‘Everything’s OK’: Wagner releases Prigozhin video

Mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin emerged from beyond the grave in a new video just days after a secret funeral, fuelling speculation he’s alive and plotting revenge.

Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin mocked claims he would be assassinated just days before being killed in a fiery plane crash, dismissing the threat and saying “Everything’s OK”.

The timing of a previously unseen video, released just days after a secret funeral service, has fuelled speculation he survived by the use of a body double and is in hiding somewhere plotting revenge.

The footage, which emerged on the Wagner-linked Grey Zone Telegram channel a week after the crash, showed Prigozhin talking to the camera with his trademark scowl.

“For those who are discussing whether I’m alive or not, how I’m doing -- right now it’s the weekend, second half of August 2023, I’m in Africa,” he said in the clip.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is seen in a chilling video released after his death, discussing risks to his life just days before his private plane crash in Russia. Picture: Reuters

Yevgeny Prigozhin dismissed threats of assassination, saying “everything’s OK”. Picture: Reuters

“So for people who like to discuss my liquidation or my private life, how much I earn or whatever else -- everything’s OK,” he adds before waving his hand dismissively.

The location, camouflage and outfit appeared to match Prigozhin’s appearance in the video he released on August 21, the first since he struck a deal with Vladimir Putin to end his march on Moscow and, previously thought, spare his own life.

Dr Valery Solovey, a former professor at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations, repeated a widely shared conspiracy that the war lord was not on the crashed jet.

“His [body] double was flying instead of him. By the way, Vladimir Putin is perfectly aware of that,” the analyst said, according to The New York Post, adding that the real Wagner chief is “alive, well and free.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to be wearing the same uniform he was seen in during the frist video since his aborted mutiny. Picture: Reuters

MOSCOW WINKS AT PRIGOZHIN MURDER

Moscow for the first time hinted that the plane crash that killed the leader of the Wagner mercenary mutiny, Yevgeny Prigozhin, could be a “premeditated” assassination.

A day after Prigozhin, 62, was buried at a private ceremony in his hometown of Saint Petersburg, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played coy over whether their investigation would link the fiery crash to speculation it was an ordered hit.

“Obviously there are different versions, including the version -- you know what we are talking about, let’s say a deliberate crime -- and so on,” Peskov told reporters.

While the first explicit acknowledgment from a top Russian official that the crash could, potentially, be the result of foul play, Moscow continued to deny that it was their foul play.

The crash, precisely two months after Prigozhin’s aborted march on Moscow, killed the Wagner boss, six of his top commanders, and three crew.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in plane crash in Russia. Picture: Supplied

A law enforcement officer works at the site of a plane crash near the village of Kuzhenkino, which the Kremlin acknowledged could be ‘premeditated’. Picture: AFP

The Kremlin has dismissed allegations it orchestrated the crash in retribution, but Peskov said Russia’s Investigative Committee would probe whether it was “premeditated”.

No international input would be considered in the investigation, which Peskov said would possible air traffic violations.

Russians paid their respects to Prigozhin on Wednesday after law enforcement lifted a cordon around the cemetery following his funeral the previous day.

Aigul, a 38-year-old woman who declined to give her last name, said Prigozhin, who held the Hero of Russia title, Moscow’s top honour, had defended his country.

“He was our protector,” she said at the cemetery.

“And who else was he if the president awarded him with medals? “I didn’t know him personally but I believe that president didn’t make a mistake by decorating him.” Marina, 51, who also withheld her last name, praised the war lord as well. “I respected him. I appreciated what he did. I loved his company which worked responsibly.”

UKRAINE MARCHES TO CRIMEA

Ukraine said its recapture of Robotyne village this week was a strategic victory paving the way for its forces to push deeper into Russian positions in the south towards Crimea.

Kyiv launched a counteroffensive in June after stockpiling Western-supplied weapons and building up assault battalions.

Progress has been costly and staggered but Ukrainian forces announced they had pushed through key Russian defensive lines with the capture of the hamlet in the Zaporizhzhia region this week.

“Having entrenched on the flanks of Robotyne, we are opening the way to Tokmak and, eventually, Melitopol and the administrative border with Crimea,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during an earlier official visit to Paris.

The Kremlin has downplayed the offensive and Yevgeny Balitsky, its official in charge of the Zaporizhzhia region -- which Russia claims as its own, warned territory beyond Robotyne would be a “mass grave for Ukraine’s armed forces”.

An Orthodox priest conducts a funeral service at the coffin of Valery Chekalov, a senior deputy of Wagner private mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Picture: AFP

THE DRONE WARS

Ukraine has meanwhile stepped up drone attacks inside Russia. It launched a wave of strikes overnight, targeting an airport near the Estonian border and the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, Russian authorities said.

The attack on Pskov airport, roughly 700 kilometres (more than 400 miles) from the border with Ukraine, marks the latest strike far from Ukraine’s borders since Kyiv vowed to “return” the conflict to Russia in July.

Governor Mikhail Vedernikov, who said he was at the scene of the attack, posted a video online of a massive fire, with the sounds of explosions and sirens in the background.

Authorities were assessing the damage but there were no casualties, he said. State news agency TASS, citing emergency services, said that four Ilyushin Il-76 heavy transport planes were damaged in the attack in Pskov, but there was no immediate comment from the defence ministry.

With AFP