Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that he had warned head of Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, of a previous assassination attempt.  

"The last time we flew to the Emirates, I received very serious information from sources, which cannot be deeper, about the attempt on the life of Yevgeny Prigozhin," he said. 

"Within two hours [I instructed], they found the Russian ambassador in Emirates, they called him to me. I gave him a cipher message to the Kremlin to Putin and Bortnikov about the impending assassination attempt on Prigozhin."  

Mr Lukashenko said he later checked with Prigozhin whether the information had reached him, to which the Wagner leader said it had. 

The Embraer passenger jet plane en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in the Tver Region on Wednesday evening. According to preliminary information, 10 people were aboard, all of them were killed in the crash. The Federal Agency for Air Transport of Russia said that Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger. A criminal case over charges of violation of air transport safety rules has been initiated.

(Source: Sky News)