Multimillionaire Russian businessman and head of the Wagner mercenary army that played a key role in the war in Ukraine

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has died aged 62 in a plane crash, was a multimillionaire militia commander who sparked the biggest crisis in the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s two decades in power. Once a close friend and confidant of Putin, in June 2023 Prigozhin led an armed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership after severely criticising the invasion of Ukraine as being unnecessary and based on false premises.

At the head of thousands of battle-hardened mercenary soldiers, known as the Wagner group, he took control of Russia’s southern military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, the official command centre of the invasion, and demanded the resignation of the defence minister and the chief of staff. He then sent a column of troops and tanks up the main highway towards Moscow. The column was attacked by helicopters loyal to Putin and several were shot down.

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