Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday blamed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for the death of the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, which occurred in a plane crash in August in an area north of Moscow.
“He killed Prigozhin, at least this is the information we all have, we have no other information,” Zelensky said at a conference in kyiv, quoted by France Presse (AFP).
The men of Wagner Group were on the front lines of combat in eastern Ukraine, including the battle for the city of Bakhmut, captured by Russian forces in May after nearly a year of bloody fighting.
After the fall of Bakhmut and growing tension with the Minister of Defense and the Russian military leadership, Prigozhin led a rebellion in late June, with agents of the Wagner Group leading a march towards Moscow with the aim of removing the Russian military leadership. .
The rebellion was stopped thanks to the mediation of Alexander Lukashenko, Putin’s ally and president of Belarus, where part of the Wagner Group moved, before the death of Prigozhin and the senior officers of the paramilitary company in an air disaster, on December 23. August.
Representatives of the Wagner Group were aboard a private plane flying between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Putin denied being behind Prigozhin’s death and described him as a talented man who did a lot for Russia but made mistakes.
Source: TSF
