Russians mourning the death of Wagner chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin have set up makeshift memorials in nearly two dozen cities across Russia and occupied Ukraine in recent days, a sign of the commander's lingering popularity and potential challenge for President Vladimir Putin amid divisions within the elite and in the military over the conduct of the war.
Prigozhin and other top Wagner leaders were killed after his Embraer business jet crashed Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow, just two months after Putin branded him a traitor for leading a short-lived rebellion against Russia's military in June. Russia's Investigative Committee in a statement Sunday confirmed the death of the Prigozhin, and the other nine people listed on the flight manifest, after conducting DNA testing on the victims' bodies.