PUNCH reports that Prigozhin and nine others were killed in the ill-fated jet believed to belong to the Wagner boss.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear but Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said the plane crash was “a signal from Putin to Russia’s elites ahead of the 2024 elections, reports The Guardian.
When asked to react to the crash and Prigozhin’s death on Wednesday, Biden said, “I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised
“There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind. But I don’t know enough to know the answer.”
Prigozhin had headed the mutiny in June, moving his troops from Ukraine, seizing the southern Russian city of Rostov on Don, and threatening to march on Moscow.
The move came after months of tension with Russian military commanders over the Ukraine conflict.
The stand-off was settled by a deal that allowed Wagner troops to move to Belarus or join the Russian army.
Since the mutiny, where he was described at the time by Vladimir Putin as a “traitor”, Prigozhin has been seen a handful of times.
He was last seen in a video on Tuesday that appeared to have been taken in Africa.
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