US president Joe Biden on Friday said US officials were trying to determine precisely how Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane was brought down in Russia, leaving no survivors.
Russia earlier on Friday scolded Mr Biden for expressing his lack of surprise that Mr Prigozhin had been killed in a plane crash and cautioned that it was not appropriate for Washington to make such remarks.
Asked by reporters what brought the Wagner leader’s plane down, Mr Biden said: “I’m not at liberty to speak to that precisely ... We’re trying to nail down precisely, but I don’t have anything to say.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Prigozhin’s family on Thursday, breaking his silence after the mercenary leader’s plane crashed two months after he led a mutiny against Russia’s army chiefs.
Russian investigators opened a criminal investigation but there has been no official word from Moscow on what may have caused Wednesday evening’s crash, in which 10 people were reported to have been killed. Until Mr Putin’s comments on Thursday there had been no official confirmation of Mr Prigozhin’s death beyond a statement from the aviation authority saying he was on board.
[ Prigozhin’s death would raise tensions within Russia’s armyOpens in new window ]
Russia’s civil aviation agency said Mr Prigozhin and six top lieutenants were on the business jet that crashed soon after taking off from Moscow, with a crew of three.
Rescuers quickly found all 10 bodies, it was reported, and Russian media cited Wagner sources as confirming Mr Prigozhin’s death.
The crash occurred exactly two months after Mr Prigozhin led a revolt against Russia’s army leadership, an act of rebellion that Mr Putin at the time condemned as a treacherous “stab in the back”. – Reuters
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