Russian Plane That Served As Background For Prigozhin’s Photos Downed Near Bakhmut

The equipment was repaired at the Georgian factory.

Near Bakhmut, the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a plane repaired at the Georgian plant Somkhishvili. Even earlier, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC, was photographed with this plane, recruiting imprisoned Russians for the war in Ukraine. This was stated by political scientist and director of the Center for the Study of Civil Society Problems Vitaly Kulik on the air of the Georgian Mtavari channel channel.

According to him, the Russian criminal authority Tamaz Somkhishvili, who is trying to sue the Kyiv City State Administration for $100 million for the unfinished reconstruction of Kharkivska Square, owns the Tbilisi Aviation Plant.

“Recently, Tamaz Somkhishvili has become a much bigger player in Russian-Georgian relations. His relative, Giorgi Tamazovich Somkhishvili, controls the Tbilisi Aviation Plant, which repairs Russian aircraft participating in the war in Ukraine. The enterprise regularly receives orders from the Russian Ministry of Defense. These refurbished planes are bombing Ukrainian cities, including Bakhmut recently,” says the Ukrainian expert.

According to him, the Somkhishvili plant repaired Russian combat aircraft in 2019 during the war in Syria and is doing so now, during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

“When Prigozhin’s Wagner PMC actively participated in the war in Syria in 2019, Tamaz Somkhishvili was also actively involved in the maintenance and repair of the Su-24. It was these planes that appeared in Bakhmut at the beginning of the week. Prigozhin personally flew in one of them. He filmed a video where he says: “The Su-24 has been well repaired and is in good shape. We have already finished bombing Bakhmut. If you want to, we will meet in the sky.” The next day, this plane was shot down by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the moment it is under repair again and transported to the Russian base,” added Vitaly Kulik.