Some media reports that the plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozin, the head of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary company, were shot down by a missile, are not accurate, the Pentagon said.
Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said at a briefing yesterday (24th) that there is “no information to suggest that the plane crash was caused by a surface-to-air missile.”
In this regard, the US media, including the ‘Washington Post’ newspaper, reported that they are considering the possibility that the plane crashed due to an in-flight explosion, citing US government officials.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the families of those killed in the crash of Prigozhin’s private jet, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
President Putin revealed this at a meeting held at the Kremlin Palace with the Russian-appointed head of the Donetsk region of Ukraine that day, saying, “I have known Prigozhin for a long time since the early 90s.”
President Putin praised Mr. Prigozhin as a capable businessman who knew how to take care of his own interests and did his part for the common cause, but said, “He was born with a difficult fate and made serious mistakes in life.”
VOA News
*This article was sourced from Reuters.
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2023-08-25 09:00:00
