Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time Thursday about the presumed death of Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a jet crash.
The U.S. said Thursday it believes preliminary reports that an explosion brought down the aircraft and killed Prigozhin and nine others on board, The New York Times reported.
Some unnamed officials are speculating that Prigozhin was assassinated, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, the U.S. has made no official public announcement to that effect.
“Our initial assessment is that it is likely Prigozhin was killed,” said Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder at a briefing on Thursday. He stopped short of describing Prigozhin’s death as an assassination, saying instead that the U.S. is still assessing the situation.
In a televised meeting on Thursday, Putin expressed condolences to the families of the crash victims, which reportedly included Prigozhin and at least two other high-ranking members of the Wagner mercenary group.
“I want to note that these are the people who significantly contributed to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine,” Putin said of the Wagner members on the plane. “We remember it, we know it, and we will not forget it.”
Concerning Prigozhin, Putin said, “He made some serious mistakes in life, but he also achieved necessary results.”
Reportedly, Prigozhin led an attempted mutiny against Putin in June before pulling back and receiving a pardon from the Russian leader.
Putin praised the paramilitary leader for some of his accomplishments, which included action on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine, Syria, and Africa.
Wagner and the Russian government have not officially confirmed his death, but a passenger manifest released by the Russian civil aviation authorities showed Prigozhin’s name.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday it might take time to confirm Putin’s rival’s death.
“Even on things like this, eventually you figure it out,” he said. “I can assure you that, to my knowledge, the United States had nothing to do with any of this whatsoever.”
The plane reportedly came down shortly after taking off from Moscow. It was bound for St. Petersburg, Prigozhin’s hometown.
People placed flowers, candles, and military patches with Wagner’s skull-and-crossbones logo near the company’s headquarters on Thursday in St. Petersburg.
“It feels like losing a father. He was everything for us,” one man who came to mourn Prigozhin told the WSJ.
Social media channels posted videos of Wagner group members crying and kneeling at a makeshift shrine.
“All of us are emotional now, but we have to hold ourselves together,” wrote Grey Zone, a Telegram channel close to the Wagner group, per the WSJ. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
