During a press conference yesterday, Department of Defense Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder was asked about the air crash in Russia that is suspected to have killed former Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
On August 24, two months after the Wagner Group’s mutiny, a Wagner-associated Embraer business jet crashed near Tver, between Moscow and St Petersburg. Russian authorities claim 10 people onboard died, including Prigozhin.
“I’ll say right up front, first of all, our initial assessment is that it’s likely Prigozhin was killed,” Ryder said. “We’re continuing to assess the situation. We don’t have any information to indicate right now the press reporting stating that there was some type of surface-to-air missile that took down the plane – we assess that information to be inaccurate. Again, nothing to indicate — no information to suggest that there was a surface-to-air missile.”
When asked if a bomb may have detonated on board, Ryder said he had no further information. Former British intelligence officer and Russia specialist Christopher Steele has reportedly told U.K. media that the crash was an inside job and that there have been “suggestions” about a bomb in a wine crate.
The U.K. Ministry of Defence has said that the demise of Prigozhin would “almost certainly have a deeply destabilizing effect on the Wagner Group” and that the vacuum left by his leadership would be “compounded by the reports that founder and field commander Dimitry Utkin and logistics chief Valery Chekalov also died.”
Ryder also said in response to further questions that the Wagner Group’s combat effectiveness has been diminished, but that the Pentagon would continue to keep a close eye on its activities. “I don’t think anybody’s going to discount the potential for danger when it comes to that group or the remnants of that group.” the U.S. Defense Department Press Secretary stated.
