Kremlin says Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane may have been downed on purpose
- Kremlin says ‘deliberate atrocity’ is a possible cause of the plane crash that killed Russian mercenary leader
- Russian villagers near the scene said they heard a bang before Prigozhin’s plane crashed, killing all 10 people on board
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane carrying mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was downed on purpose, the first explicit acknowledgement that he may have been assassinated.
“It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version – you know what we are talking about – let’s say, a deliberate atrocity,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the investigation.
Asked if the International Civil Aviation Organisation would investigate the crash, Peskov said that the circumstances made it different, though he cautioned that investigators had made no formal conclusions yet about what exactly took place.
“Let’s wait for the results of our Russian investigation,” Peskov said.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner group founder and ex Putin ally, reportedly dies in plane crash in Russia
The private Embraer aircraft on which Prigozhin was travelling to St Petersburg from Moscow crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on August 23, including two other top Wagner figures, Prigozhin’s four bodyguards and a crew of three.