August 26th 2023.
Residents of the Russian village of Nikolayevka were stunned to witness heavy machinery bulldozing hundreds of graves belonging to the Wagner Group. Photos and videos of the incident showed piles of crosses and wreaths that had been carelessly disposed of, and freshly flattened graves. It appears the site was being paved with concrete, and a black pyramid was to be placed at the grave of each fighter.
In April, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group's leader, had unveiled a black obelisk at the cemetery site. This monument has been left untouched by the bulldozers. The Samara Oblast authorities have yet to release any official statement concerning the incident.
The bulldozing of the cemetery occurred soon after reports claiming Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a Russian plane crash on August 23. For weeks, security experts had been referring to the Wagner boss as a 'dead man walking' due to his short-lived mutiny in June. Few details of the plane crash have been released, though it has been established the flight was heading to Moscow from St. Petersburg.
Vladimir Putin appeared to confirm the warlord's death by paying tribute to him during a televised speech from the Kremlin. Flight-tracking data suggests the aircraft showed no signs of a problem until its final 30 seconds, when there was a precipitous drop. Russian authorities are still investigating the crash.
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