Vladimir Putin confirms death of Yevgeny Prigozhin and says ‘businessman’ had a ‘difficult fate’
Andrew Roth
Vladimir Putin has confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling the Wagner mercenary chief a “talented businessman” with “a difficult fate”.
In a meeting at the Kremlin, the Russian president addressed the crash of Prigozhin’s business jet for the first time, offering condolences to the families of the 10 people onboard.
He said that Prigozhin had returned to Russia from Africa on Wednesday and had met “some officials”, without specifying whom.
Putin said he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s.
“He was a man with a difficult fate. He made some serious mistakes in his life,” Putin said. “He achieved the needed results both for himself and for a joint effort that I had asked him about during the last months.”
It appeared he was referring to the war in Ukraine and possibly the efforts of Wagner fighters in the city of Bakhmut.
“He was a talented businessman,” said Putin, promising a full investigation.
Key events
Emma Graham-Harrison
Ukraine celebrates independence day with first raid into Crimea
Ukrainian forces marked the country’s independence day with a naval raid into occupied Crimea, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukrainians for the defiance and courage that has won them global support in the fight with Russia.
The national holiday celebrates Ukraine’s independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, but this year it also marks 18 months since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion plunged the country into a war for survival.
Ukrainian troops landed on the western tip of Crimea, near the village of Olenivka, in the early hours of Thursday, defence intelligence said in a statement. They fought Russian troops and raised a Ukrainian flag, before all returned safely home.
It was the first time Ukrainian forces are known to have landed in Crimea since Putin ordered his forces over the border last year. They had to evade Russian defences on a long journey across the Black Sea, and then escape again after a skirmish.
Read more from Emma Graham-Harrison in Kyiv:
Explosion onboard probably brought down plane presumed to be carrying Wagner leader
An explosion onboard a plane presumed to be carrying the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin probably brought down the aircraft on Wednesday, the New York Times has reported, citing US and other western officials.
Officials told the Times the explosion could have been caused by a bomb or another device planted on the aircraft, adding that other theories were being explored.
After Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death, many ask how he survived for so long
The Kremlin meeting was like a scene from The Godfather. Shortly after their mutiny was quelled in June, 35 Wagner commanders were summoned for a sit-down with Vladimir Putin. Putin said he offered them the chance to continue fighting in Ukraine. But Yevgeny Prigozhin, their leader and financier, was defiant.
“A lot of them nodded their heads” at the offer, Putin claimed. “But Prigozhin … didn’t see [their reaction] and said: ‘No, the guys won’t agree with that decision.’”
Two months later, Prigozhin is reportedly dead, probably assassinated. For many Russian insiders, the bigger question is how he defied Putin and remained alive for so long.
Read more by Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer here:
Russia will return to the Black Sea grain deal only if the west fulfils its obligations to Moscow, Sergei Lavrov has told the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Reuters reported that the Russian foreign ministry said: “In response to a question from the UN secretary general about the prospects for resuming the ‘Black Sea initiative’, [the Russian foreign minister] Sergei Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s position … about its readiness to return to participation in it only if all obligations to the Russian side are actually fulfilled.”
Vladimir Putin confirms death of Yevgeny Prigozhin and says ‘businessman’ had a ‘difficult fate’
Andrew Roth
Vladimir Putin has confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling the Wagner mercenary chief a “talented businessman” with “a difficult fate”.
In a meeting at the Kremlin, the Russian president addressed the crash of Prigozhin’s business jet for the first time, offering condolences to the families of the 10 people onboard.
He said that Prigozhin had returned to Russia from Africa on Wednesday and had met “some officials”, without specifying whom.
Putin said he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s.
“He was a man with a difficult fate. He made some serious mistakes in his life,” Putin said. “He achieved the needed results both for himself and for a joint effort that I had asked him about during the last months.”
It appeared he was referring to the war in Ukraine and possibly the efforts of Wagner fighters in the city of Bakhmut.
“He was a talented businessman,” said Putin, promising a full investigation.
Putin sends condolences to Prigozhin’s family
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has spoken for the first time since yesterday’s plane crash, sending his condolences to the family of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Reuters reports.
Speaking in a televised speech, Putin called the Wagner group founder a talented businessman and said investigators would look into what happened – but that it would take time.
More to follow …
Dan Sabbagh
What does the removal of Prigozhin and Surovikin mean for the war in Ukraine?
Yevgeny Prigozhin apparently being killed on the same day that it emerged Gen Sergei Surovikin had been relieved of his command of Russia’s air force means the country’s two most effective leaders in the first phase of the Ukraine war are now gone, their removal a victory of sorts for the old guard at the Kremlin.
The Wagner group, headed by Prigozhin, led the capture of Bakhmut, Russia’s only battlefield gain so far this year, while it was his ally Surovikin, in his short period of overall command in Ukraine, who began building the defensive fortifications that are seen as so important to the invader’s position today.
However, the conduct of the invasion has changed since the fall of Bakhmut and Prigozhin’s brief, failed rebellion at the end of June. Wagner’s 15,000-strong light infantry force has been absent from the battle since late May and, after the rebellion, has in effect been broken up.
Read more here:
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has said Washington is imposing sanctions on two entities and 11 people, including alleged facilitators of the forced transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children.
The US will also take steps to impose visa restrictions on three Russia-installed purported authorities over their involvement in human rights abuses of Ukrainian minors, Thomas-Greenfield told a UN security council meeting on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The meeting coincided with Ukraine’s independence day.
Today is the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. Here are the latest images:
What we know about Prigozhin’s ‘last flight’ – a visual guide
The aircraft on which Yevgeny Prigozhin was travelling had long been linked with the Wagner group. The tracking service FlightRadar identified the Embraer Legacy 600 jet as being in regular use in recent months, flying from both St Petersburg and Moscow.
According to some reports, the Wagner party onboard had been attending a meeting with officials from Russia’s defence ministry.
The aircraft, manufactured in 2007, fell under US Treasury sanctions in 2019 when it was listed under a previous registration, M-SAAN, according to a US government press release.
Read more here:
Pjotr Sauer
Wagner fighters and a few dozen members of the public have gathered at a makeshift memorial for Yevgeny Prigozhin in his home town of St Petersburg as the Kremlin kept its silence on the warlord’s apparent death in a plane crash.
Footage of the memorial set up outside Wagner’s headquarters in the city showed men in military camouflage laying flowers on the ground in front of portraits of Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, a close Prigozhin ally often described as the founder of the mercenary group who was also named on the passenger list.
In one clip, a fighter in full military garb fell to his knees and wept.
A young man standing outside the memorial on Wednesday evening said in an interview published by the Russian news outlet Sota: “I am here to honour the memory of Prigozhin … I support his politics, Wagner is just.”
From Putin’s ‘chef’ to Wagner chief: timeline of Prigozhin’s relationship with Russian president
Yevgeny Prigozhin, who went from selling hotdogs to running Russia’s largest private army, launched an abortive mutiny in June and was onboard a private jet en route from Moscow to St Petersburg when it crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region on Wednesday, Russian officials said. All 10 people onboard the plane died, according to Russia’s emergencies ministry.