Prigozhin was reportedly killed in a plane explosion within Russian airspace on Wednesday along with 9 others
Putin gave Wagner Group’s Prigozhin a ‘false sense of security’: Dan Hoffman
Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman reacts to reports that the Wagner Group leader died in a plane crash and discusses the impact it could have on the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time regarding the reported death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, expressing condolences.
Putin made the remarks during a Thursday meeting with Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, a Russian-aligned Ukrainian separatist state.
"First of all, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims, this is always a tragedy," Putin said.
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"Preliminary information suggests that Wagner Group employees were also on board," the Russian president continued. "I would like to note that these people have made a significant contribution to our common cause in the fight against the neo-Nazi regime."
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow. (ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
Prigozhin, the founder of Russia's Wagner Group who challenged the rule of Vladimir Putin just months ago, was killed Wednesday in a plane crash that has left 10 people dead outside of Moscow, state media is reporting.
The business jet was traveling from the Russian capital to St. Petersburg when it went down in the Tver region, according to the TASS news agency.
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"Prigozhin was listed among the passengers, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency," read a post by TASS on Telegram. "An investigation into the crash of the Embraer aircraft has been launched, the department noted."
In this image taken from video released by Razgruzka_Vagnera telegram channel, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company speaks to a camera at an unknown location. (Razgruzka_Vagnera telegram channel via AP)
Little concrete information has been produced regarding the disaster, and bodily evidence has yet to be produced.
Media figures and government officials have speculated that Putin was behind the explosion that allegedly took the mercenary warlord's life — but news outlets have published reports with conflicting information from the U.S. federal government.
Immediately following the incident, President Biden was asked about reports that Prigozhin was possibly on the doomed aircraft.
Portraits of Yevgeny Prigozhin (L) and Dmitry Utkin (R), a shadowy figure who managed Wagner's operations and allegedly served in Russian military intelligence, are seen at the makeshift memorial in front of the PMC Wagner office in Novosibirsk, on August 24, 2023. Russian state-run news agencies on August 23, 2023 said that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group that led a mutiny against Russia's army in June, was on the list of passengers of a plane that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region. (VLADIMIR NIKOLAYEV/AFP via Getty Images)
"I don't know for a fact what happened, but I am not surprised... Not much happens in Russia that Putin's not behind. I don't know enough to know the answer," he said.
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Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst and former senior official at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), told Fox News Digital that reports by Russian state media should be looked at with skepticism, given Moscow's agenda.
"At this time, we lack independent confirmation whether the Russian media or the Federal Air Transport Agency reporting about Prigozhin’s death is credible," she said. "There could be many reasons why Moscow wants us to believe that Prigozhin is dead. If he indeed died in the plane crash, it’s probably a result of the assassination operation, ‘wet deeds’ in Russian tradecraft, conducted on Putin’s orders."
"If Prigozhin is alive, the story could be a disinformation operation, intended to get Prigozhin back under cover to run clandestine operations in Africa and other places vital for Putin," Koffler added.
A Russian serviceman inspects a part of a crashed private jet near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, reportedly died when a private jet he was said to be on crashed on Aug. 23, 2023, killing all 10 people on board.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied any involvement in the alleged death of Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
"We are not involved in this situation, that's for sure," the president told the public Thursday. "I think everyone is aware of who is involved."
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at
