Extract from ABC News
By Paul Johnson and Jenny Cai
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences after a plane crash that authorities say killed Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Key points:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Mr Prigozhin "made serious mistakes in life" in televised comments
- Mr Putin said Mr Prigozhin just returned to Russia from Africa
- Russian investigators opened a criminal probe into the crash but the cause is currently unknown
Russian air authorities said Mr Prigozhin, his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin and eight other people were on the private jet that crashed on Wednesday leaving no survivors.
Eight of the 10 bodies have been located, with investigations ongoing.
Mr Putin spoke on Russian television to offer condolences to the families of all onboard but the mercenary chief was the focal point.
"As for the aviation tragedy, first of all I want to express my most sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. It's always a tragedy," Mr Putin said in televised remarks made during a meeting in the Kremlin with the Moscow-installed chief of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
"I have known Prigozhin for a long time, since the beginning of the 1990s.
"This was a person with a complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in life, but also sought to achieve the necessary results — both for himself and at a time when I asked him to, for the common cause, such as in these recent months."
Mr Putin also said that to his knowledge, Mr Prigozhin "only yesterday [Wednesday] returned from Africa".
In recent days the Wagner boss was believed to have been in West Africa — where Western analysts feared the group was seeking to widen its reach into other countries, including Niger, where a coup had just taken place.
Mr Putin also paid tribute to all of those who were on the jet for their role in what Russia calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine.
"I would like to note that these are people who have made a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine," he said.
"We remember and know it, and we will not forget it."
Mr Putin said that it was necessary to await the outcome of the official investigation into the crash.
Russian investigators opened a criminal probe into the crash on Wednesday but there was no official word from Moscow on a likely cause.
Many theories were floated in the hours after the crash, especially in light of Wagner's mutiny march towards Moscow, led by Mr Prigozhin.
Mr Putin had denounced the mutiny as "a stab in the back" and vowed to deliver a harsh punishment, before agreeing to a deal that saw an end to the mutiny in exchange for Mr Prigozhin and his troops moving to Belarus.
Theories on the cause of the crash
The US Department of Defense said there was currently no information to suggest that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane.
Reuters had reported earlier that the United States was looking at a number of theories over what caused the plane to crash, and cited two US officials saying a surface-to-air missile likely hit it.
The officials stressed that the information was still preliminary and under review, and did not rule out a change to the assessment.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported a different theory, citing unnamed US officials: that a bomb aboard the aircraft or some other sabotage caused the crash.
It is not uncommon for there to be competing, even contradictory, intelligence views in the US government in the hours and days after major international events.
A third US official told Reuters that there were a number of theories and no definitive conclusion had been reached.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he was not surprised by reports that Mr Prigozhin had died in a plane crash, adding that not much happens in Russia that Mr Putin is not behind.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied Kyiv had any involvement in the jet crash, and pointed the finger at Russian authorities.
"We have nothing to do with this. Everyone understands who does," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"When Ukraine spoke and addressed the countries of the world about planes, we did not mean this. We meant something completely different and we wanted support, although, this will probably also help in a sense."
ABC/Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment