In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Brig. General Patrick S. Ryder, said Prigozhin was “probably” killed in the plane crash, according to an initial US assessment, but reports that the plane was shot down by a missile appeared “inaccurate”.
Here is the latest news on the war and its impact around the world.
An explosion was detected in the plane’s path, but there was no sign of a missile launch, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a preliminary assessment. The initial uncertainty leaves open the possibility that the plane was sabotaged in some way, but what exactly happened to the Embraer private jet remains unclear, according to the Washington Post. reported.
It is “very likely” that Prigozhin is dead, although there is no “definitive proof”. British Ministry of Defense said Friday. “Very likely” means that the ministry estimates that the probability that he is dead is between 80 and 90 percent. “Prigozhin’s disappearance would almost certainly have a profoundly destabilizing effect on the Wagner Group,” the ministry added.
Putin made the comments amid widespread speculation that the Kremlin may have ordered the crash in reply to Prigozhin short-lived mutiny in June – the most serious challenge to Putin’s regime in decades. Russian opponent Alexei Navalny imprisoned accused Putin for “arranging the murder of his soldier Prigozhin”. But pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov said the president’s remarks were intended to stem speculation in Russia that he ordered the killings.
For many Russian elites, the plane crash marked Putin’s reassertion of control, analysts told the Post, given the long story enemies of Putin, including journalists and opposition politicians, dying or falling ill in suspicious circumstances after opposing the Russian leader.
President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the occasion of Ukraine’s Independence Day, and Biden “reiterated the commitment of the United States to support the defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression for as long as it takes.” They agreed to start training Ukrainian fighter pilots on F-16 fighter jets to “increase Ukraine’s defensive capabilities”, the White House said. said. Zelensky previously reaffirmed that Ukraine was not involved in the crash of the Russian plane.
Norway will supply a number of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr’s store said, without specifying how much. “We have already decided to train pilots of Ukrainian fighter jets and announced this summer that we will provide two Norwegian F-16 aircraft for training purposes,” he said. Norway will later release further details on additional F-16 donations to Ukraine, he added. The United States will begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets in Arizona in October, according to the Pentagon. said.
The United States has imposed sanctions on the Russians linked to the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. ‘Children are the most innocent victims of war: we have not forgotten Ukrainian children,’ says State Department said in a statement announcing the new sanctions against more than a dozen individuals and entities.
Heineken announced that it had completed its exit from the Russian market with an expected loss of 300 million euros ($324 million), after having sold its activities in the country to the Russian group Arnest for the symbolic sum of one euro. The Dutch brewer, famous for its beers, said in a statement statement On Friday, he had planned to exit the Russian market after the start of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but acknowledged that “it took much longer than we had hoped”.
Ukraine seeks armored medical evacuation vehicles from supporterssaid Zelensky, according to his office. Ukrainian medical professionals struggle to keep pace increase mine casualties since the start of the counter-offensive in June.
The Russian Defense Ministry has accused Ukraine of attempting dozens of drone attacks over Crimea. the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014, although it claimed Russian forces were capable of destroying or intercepting all of them. Russia blamed kyiv series of explosions in Crimea, including attacks on Russian military sites last year. kyiv has not officially claimed responsibility for the attacks. warning that they will continue because of the war.
Prigozhin’s alleged death casts doubt on the fate of Wagner’s operations: The apparent death of Prigozhin and his top lieutenants brought the Wagner mercenary group closer together, report Mary Ilyushina and Francesca Ebel. But the question remains: what remnants of Wagner Putin’s once sprawling empire will he take over?
As an organization, Wagner is “really finished”, said David Lewis, a professor of global politics at Britain’s University of Exeter who has studied the group’s illicit business networks in Africa. Prigozhin would be “impossible to replace”, he said. But the Kremlin will seek to replicate Wagner’s mix of mercenaries, profitable business, smuggling and disinformation campaigns, he added.
