Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said his country had “nothing to do” with the presumed death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, instead implying the Kremlin’s responsibility.
“We have nothing to do with this situation, that’s for sure. I think everyone knows who this concerns,” he told reporters a day after a private jet on which Prigozhin was registered as a passenger crashed between Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
The Russian Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday, August 23 said that Yevgeny – who led a short-lived mutiny against President Vladimir Putin-led Russian government in late June – was on the passenger list of the ill-fated jet.
– Yevgeny: ‘Dead man walking’ –
The 62-year-old mercenary boss founded Wagner – a group that now boasts of about 25,000 fighters – in 2014. The group has been active in Ukraine, Syria, and West Africa.
Yevgeny led the mutiny on 23-24 June 2023, moving his troops from Ukraine, and threatening to march to Moscow. On the way, the group even seized control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
The stand-off was settled by a deal that allowed Wagner troops to move to Belarus or join the Russian army. Yevgeny himself relocated to Belarus too.
Ever since then, Russian opinion shapers have described him as a “dead man walking”.
