Russian air authorities have said Prigozhin, Utkin and eight
other people were on a private plane that crashed with no
survivors north of Moscow on Wednesday.
"You are facing a serious choice now - you can stand in a stall
of Russia's defence ministry and serve as watchdogs for
executors of your commanders or take revenge," commander of the
Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) Denis Kapustin said in a video
address published late on Thursday.
"To take revenge you need to switch to Ukraine's side," the
commander said.
The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin and his
Wagner mercenaries staged a mutiny against Russian military
commanders in which they took control of a southern city,
Rostov, and advanced towards Moscow before turning around 200
kilometers far from the capital.
Russia has opened an investigation into the crash, but its
outcome is unlikely to shake a widespread belief that Prigozhin
was killed as an act of vengeance for staging the mutiny.
Reuters had cited two U.S. officials earlier on Thursday saying
a surface-to-air missile likely hit the plane. Pentagon later
said it had no evidence to support that.
After 24 hours of silence, Russian President Validimir Putin
paid "sincere condolences" to the families of all 10 people on
the plane, and praised Prigozhin as a "talented businessman".
RVC commander Kapustin, a far-right Russian national, founded
the armed group a year ago. RVC fights on the Ukrainian side and
has said it was behind several military attacks on Russian
border regions.
"Let's end the bloody meat grinder of the special military
operation," Kapustin said in his address to Wagner fighters
using the Russian official name for the invasion of Ukraine.
"After that, we will march to Moscow and this time we will not
stop 200 kilometers before the Moscow ring road but go to the
end," he said.
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in New York; Editing by Michael
Perry)
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