Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, is presumed useless in a airplane crash

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier Normal Patrick Ryder mentioned Thursday that the Protection Division believes the top of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in a crash in Russia on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to enter the main points of how we gathered the knowledge, aside from, once more, our preliminary evaluation based mostly on a wide range of elements was that he was deceased,” Ryder mentioned.

Ryder additionally mentioned the Pentagon has “no info at the moment” that Prigog’s airplane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

CNN beforehand reported that the US had seen no signal of the missile downing the airplane.

Earlier this Thursday, 4 US officers informed CNN there was no indication the airplane was downed by a missile.

US intelligence companies are nonetheless evaluating the reason for the crash. Officers cautioned that it was too early to make any conclusions, however a number of prospects had been being evaluated, together with an explosion on board the vessel that induced the crash.

One other supply conversant in Western intelligence providers echoed experiences by US officers, saying there was no signal of a missile launch.

Officers mentioned the U.S. had no info that the Embraer Legacy 600 was hit by a surface-to-air missile, which may have been fired from a Russian air protection system, or by an air-to-air missile. Russian fighter.

These conversant in the intelligence imagine that the airplane was shot down intentionally and that the aim was to kill Prigozhin. Within the days and weeks after the June 24 rebellion, it was hotly debated whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin would attempt to assassinate Wagner’s boss.

“I don’t know what occurred, however I’m not shocked,” President Joe Biden informed reporters Wednesday. “There’s not a lot occurring in Russia that Putin isn’t far behind.”