The Wagner mercenary group’s second-in-command is buried in a quiet Moscow ceremony

MOSCOW (AP) — The man who is believed to have given Russian mercenary group Wagner its name has been buried at a military cemetery in Moscow. Dmitry Utkin died in an Aug. 23 plane crash that killed all 10 people on board, including Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his other top lieutenants. The crash between Moscow and St. Petersburg happened two months after Prigozhin led his fighters in a brief mutiny against Russia’s military leadership. Utkin was buried on Thursday at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery, where some of Russia’s military heroes are interred. His nom de guerre was Wagner, an apparent reference to German composer Richard Wagner, and it became the mercenary group’s name.