For more than many times at war, soldiers are the pawns; the expendables sent to have their blood shed. These people fight for their country, their nation, in many cases, on behalf of the interest of their leaders.
In Russia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch, didn't see it coming.
As the leader the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, Prigozhin helped President Vladimir Putin in the his war with Ukraine. But during the time, he briefly rebelled against his own government, and was openly defiant of the regime of Putin despite his previous role as a prominent ally.
While the rebellion was resolved through negotiations which allowed Prigozhin to evade punishment, many started considering Prigozhin as a "dead man walking."
People speculated that the man won't live for too long.
And that allegedly happened.
On 23 August 2023, it's reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin was declared dead.
This happened when an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet, reportedly en route from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, crashed near Kuzhenkino in Tver Oblast, Russia. The incident killed everyone onboard, including three of its crew, as well as seven of its passengers.
The passengers include the Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin himself, Wagner Group co-founder and military operations leader Dmitry Utkin, Wagner Group head of security and foreign logistics Valery Chekalov, two Wagner veterans, and two bodyguards.
On the day of the crash, Prigozhin was reported to have just returned from a trip to Africa.
According to data from Flightradar24, the flight was airborne by 3 p.m. UTC and was cruising normally before data transaction ceased about 20 minutes later.
The plane crashed near Kuzhenkino, around 100 kilometers north of its departure point in Moscow.
According to video footage, the plane was going down with white vapor trails behind it. The plane went down in an uncontrolled tumble moments before impact.
Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, is said to have died at the age of 60.
As a close ally of Putin, Prigozhin was not a pawn.
He was far more worthy.
Prigozhin was born in 1961 in Leningrad, formerly known as Petrograd, later, Saint Petersburg. He was the only son of a hospital nurse and a a mining engineer.
He made his initial riches when he conducted a successful catering business.
Prigozhin first entered Putin's inner circle when he became a personal cook for Putin and his family in the early 1990s.
This gave him the nickname "Putin's chef."
At the time, Putin was then a rising star in the city government, and Prigozhin's catering business catered to many of Putin's events.
He soon became a wealthy man, and used his wealth to expand his business interests into other areas, including restaurants, nightclubs, and hotels.
Many of the companies Prigozhin founded were created to provide assistance to the Russian government. Among others, Prigozhin was also the founder of the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm that was accused of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In the years since then, Prigozhin has become one of Putin's closest allies. He was a major donor to many of Putin's political campaigns, and had also been involved in a number of business ventures with Putin's associates.
In more recent years, Prigozhin has come under increasing scrutiny for his role in a number of controversial activities, including his support for Putin in invading Ukraine.
Despite everything, Prigozhin remained a close ally of Putin, and he continued playing a major role in Russian politics and business.
Prigozhin was a controversial figure, but he was also a powerful one.
He remained Putin's close ally, until he retaliated.
Read: How The Short-Lived Revolt Of Russian Wagner Group Mercenary Affects Google News
While Prigozhin has been made public by Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations and through Russian state-owned media agency TASS, Prigozhin main cause of death was not immediately released.
The government was quiet about it, and refrained from creating too much fuss.
But Wagner-associated Telegram channel claimed that the 2007-made business jet was actually shot down by Russian air defenses. The channel claimed that local residents near the crash site heard two distinct loud noises before the incident and observed two vapor trails
"Prigozhin died as the result of the actions of Russia’s traitors," wrote the Grey Zone, a social media outlet close to Wagner.
"But even in hell, he’ll be the best! Glory to Russia!"
This statement however, is debated because of the lack of visible missile trails in the released footage.
While initial evidence suggested that a bomb or an anti-aircraft missile destroyed the plane, the Russian government didn't detail anything about it.
Officials only said that the possibility of a shootdown was indeed being considered due to the crash site's proximity to Vladimir Putin's residence in Valdai.
The vicinity is known for hosting an array of S-300 missile system, a type of long-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the former Soviet Union. Nearby, two airbases, the Khotilovo and the Migalovo, are also equipped with Pantsir missile system, a medium-range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery systems.
Due to how the incident allegedly took the lives of Wagner Group's highest ranking officials, too many conspiracy theories and rumors spread throughout the web.
Too much misinformation and malinformation are being made about Prigozhin's presumed death and that nobody could verify any of the claims.
It's worth noting that back in 2019, Prigozhin was reported dead in a crash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to only reappeared a few days later.
Grey Zone hailed Prigozhin as a hero and a patriot who it said had died at the hands of unidentified people it called "traitors to Russia."
In August 27th, the death of all the plane's passengers were officially confirmed following genetic analysis conducted on the biological remains recovered from the wreckage.
"As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular-genetic examinations have been completed," Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
"According to their results, the identities of all 10 dead were established. They correspond to the list stated in the flight sheet," it said.
In a statement, Kremlin said that Prigozhin was "a successful businessman and a patriot of Russia." The statement also said that Prigozhin "will be remembered for his many contributions to the country."
Prigozhin was a major figure in Russian politics, and his death is a significant loss for the country.
It's worth noting that Putin has a history of publicly mourning the deaths of his close associates. But following Prigozhin's death, Putin didn't make any public statement about it. Because of this, Putin is making it seem, that he can kill his own chessmen if he wants too.
Putin did sent his condolences on to the families of those who have died in the crash.
During his life, Prigozhin was a feared man. He received a number of Russian awards, particularly the title of Hero of the Russian Federation in 2022, the Sudan's Order of the Republic in 2018, and the Order of the Two Niles in 2020.
Prigozhin has been buried in a private funeral in Saint Petersburg, held in "a closed format", and all those "wishing to say goodbye can visit the [city's] Porokhovskoye cemetery", his press service has said.