A video showing a Russian plane being shot down by Wanger group soldiers in Russia in June 2023 during their failed mutiny is being shared with a false claim that it shows visuals of the recent plane crash involving Wagner group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The Wagner Group, a Russian government-funded paramilitary and private military company, staged a rebellion on June 23, 2023, in Russia after rising tensions between the Russian Ministry of Defence and Prigozhin. Prigozhin led a mutiny in which Wagner fighters took control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and shot down a number of military helicopters and advanced towards Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin had called it an act of treachery and said it would meet with a harsh response. However, before they could face off, a deal was struck that ended the rebellion and sent Prigozhin and his fighters to neighboring Belarus.
On August 23, 2023, according to Russian officials, Prigozhin was on board a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow. The plane was a private Embraer jet carrying seven passengers and three crew members, according to Russia’s emergency services ministry reported CNN. The cause of the crash is not known so far. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published a video showing a plane plummeting with one wing missing, BOOM is unable to confirm the authenticity of the video, but RIA Novosti claimed it was the moment that an Embraer jet fell from the sky over the Tver region. This video is different from the viral video. Putin also praised Prigozhin as a talented businessman and said he wished to express sincere condolences to the families of those who died in a plane crash on August 23, 2023.
The viral video being shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) by the user Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) with the caption, "A video appeared, which allegedly shows the moment of the crash of Prigozhin's plane."
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The same video is being widely shared on X with the false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from June 2023, when the Wanger group had led a failed mutiny against the Russian military and reportedly shot down a Russian Air Force plane among several other military helicopters while advancing to the Russian capital Moscow.
We found several replies to the X post pointing out that the video is old and not related to the recent plane crash northwest of Moscow that had Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on the passenger list according to Russian officials.
Taking a hint from this, we found that the same video was posted on YouTube by Daily Mail with the caption, "This is the moment Wagner soldiers shot down a Russian airforce AN-26 plane on Saturday. It was one of seven planes shot down by the rebel soldiers in Russia killing up to 39 air crew." on June 26, 2023.
This shows the same sequence of events as in the viral video and the same background voice can also be heard.
The same video was also shared on X on June 24, 2023, and was attributed to pro-Wanger group Telegram channels claiming that a Antonov An-26 transport plane was shot out of the skies by the group over the Voronezh region.
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BOOM could not independently verify the incident, however, we were able to establish that this video is old and not from the recent plane crash in the northwest of Moscow.
Additionally, the recent video published by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti attributed to the Prigozhin plane crash has different visuals than the viral video.
We can see this video below in this CNN news report on the incident.
