Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the death of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died after one of his private jets crashed in August during a domestic flight.
“The fact that he killed Prigozhin – at least that’s the information we all have, not any other kind – that also speaks to his rationality, and about the fact that he is weak,” Reuters reported Zelenskyy saying at a conference in Kyiv when asked a question about Putin.
Zelenskyy did not provide any proof for his claim, according to the media report.
Prigozhin’s plane crashed exactly two months after the Wagner boss led a failed mutiny against the Russian president. Putin had denounced the brief mutiny attempt, calling it “treason” before reaching a truce with Prigozhin until the crash.
Nine other people, including Wagner founder Dmitry Utkin, were on board the plane with the Wagner chief.
Putin, who did not attend the funeral of the Wagner boss, called previous allegations of his involvement in the plane crash an “absolute lie” and said the Kremlin would not initiate an international investigation into the jet crash.
Several Putin critics have been jailed, killed or have died after publicly speaking out against the Russian president over the years. More recently, a Putin critic fell to his death in Washington. In August, political opponent Alexei Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison.
