A private jet linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin has landed at a military airfield in Belarus, according to reports.
The Belarusian Hajun project, which monitors the country’s airspace, said the plane landed at the Machulishchi military airfield near Minsk at 7.40am on Tuesday.
Flightradar24 tracking data shows the Embraer Legacy 600 jet flew to Minsk from Rostov.
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 27, 2023
A private jet used by Prigozhin flew from Rostov to Minsk this morning. pic.twitter.com/P9MIj6xVaw
There was no immediate identification of who was on board.
The identification codes of the aircraft suggest it is linked to Autolex Transport, a Russian-based aviation firm connected to Prigozhin that was previously hit by US sanctions.
Wagner boss Prigozhin is believed to have fled Russia having called off a mutiny on Saturday after cutting a deal to let him retreat to Belarus.
In his first public comments since his aborted march on Moscow, Prigozhin denied trying to topple Vladimir Putin and said the rebellion was in response to failings by defence chiefs during the invasion of Ukraine.
He said: “The aim of the march was to avoid destruction of Wagner and to hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors.”
He added his troops, who downed military planes while heading for the capital in an armoured column of more than 5,000 men, regret “they had to hit Russian aviation”. He said they turned back “to avoid spilling blood of Russian soldiers”.
The revolt began with the seizure of a military HQ in Rostov-on-Don after 30 Wagner troops were allegedly killed in a rocket attack.
But Prigozhin abruptly called off the mutiny after Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal allowing him to leave Russia.
The Kremlin has said that as part of the deal, Prigozhin and his forces would not be charged.
But state-controlled Russian media said on Monday that sources at the FSB spy agency had told them the decision to launch a criminal case had not been reversed and inquiries continued.
