Putin breaks silence on Prigozhin’s death – follow latest on Ukraine war

Vladimir Putin has praised Wagner group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as “a talented businessman”.

Breaking his 24-hour silence on the crash, the Russian president sent his condolences to the families of all 10 people killed when the private jet crashed near Moscow.

The outcome of the official investigation into the crash must be awaited, which would take some time, Mr Putin said.

He made the remarks while speaking with the Russian-installed leader of Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, in a televised interview.

There is not yet definitive proof that Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board the flight that crashed near Tver on Wednesday, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

“However, it is highly likely that he is indeed dead,” it added.

“The demise of Prigozhin would almost certainly have a deeply destabilising effect on the Wagner Group.

“His personal attributes of hyper-activity, exceptional audacity, a drive for results and extreme brutality permeated Wagner and are unlikely to be matched by any successor.”

Much of Wagner’s senior leadership is said to have been on the jet that crashed in Russia. Western security officials believe Yevgeny Prigozhin and his group may have been overconfident, writes Kim Sengupta – and fallen foul of Vladimir Putin’s ruthlessness.

While news that Russia’s Wagner mercenary chief was believed dead in a plane crash dominated world reports on Thursday, along with speculation that it was linked to his June mutiny, Russian state media painted a very different picture.

State TV channels Russia 24 and Russia 1 on Thursday largely stuck to describing the investigation into the previous day’s crash that killed 10 people. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose brief march on Moscow was seen as the biggest challenge to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s 23-year-rule, was mentioned only toward the end of some reports.

Meanwhile, Russian state TV channels focused on portraying Mr Putin as calm and in control.

There was extensive coverage of Putin’s participation, via virtual link, in the summit of Brics nations in South Africa. Russia 24 covered Putin’s speech at the Brics summit in its entirety without any usual ad breaks or customary news bulletins.

In contrast, independent Russian media outside the country, such as online news outlet Meduza, gave blow-by-blow coverage of the crash.

And many Russians feverishly discussed Prigozhin’s presumed death online, including speculation prevalent in the West that Prigozhin’s death might have been an assassination to avenge his role in the aborted June mutiny.

President Joe Biden’s decision to allow allies to train Ukrainian forces on how to operate F-16 fighter jets — and eventually to provide the aircraft themselves — seemed like an abrupt change in position but was in fact one that came after months of internal debate and quiet talks with allies.

Mr Biden announced during the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that the US would join the F-16 coalition. His green light came after president Volodymyr Zelensky spent months pressing the West to provide his forces with American-made jets as he tries to repel Russia’s now 15-month-old grinding invasion.

Long shadowing the administration’s calculation were worries that such a move could escalate tensions with Russia. US officials also argued that learning to fly and logistically support the advanced F-16 would be difficult and time consuming.

But over the past three months, administration officials shifted toward the view that it was time to provide Ukraine’s pilots with the training and aircraft needed for the country’s long-term security needs, according to three officials familiar with the deliberations who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Still, the change in Mr Biden’s position seemed rather sudden.

In February, Mr Biden was insistent in an interview with ABC’s David Muir that Ukraine “doesn’t need F-16s now” and that “I am ruling it out for now.” And in March, a top Pentagon policy official, Colin Kahl, told US lawmakers that even if the president approved F-16s for Ukraine, it could take as long as two years to get Ukrainian pilots trained and equipped.

But as the administration was publicly playing down the prospect of F-16s for Ukraine in the near term, an internal debate was heating up.

Quiet White House discussions stepped up in February, around the time that Mr Biden visited Ukraine and Poland, according to the US officials.

Following the trip, discussions that included senior White House National Security Council, Pentagon and State Department officials began on the pros and cons and the details of how such a transfer might work, officials said. Administration officials also got deeper into consultations with allies.

In April, defence secretary Lloyd Austin heard from defence leaders from allied countries during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group who were looking for US permission to train the Ukrainians on F-16s, according to a Defense Department official who was not authorised to comment publicly. Mr Austin raised the matter during the NSC policy discussions and there was agreement that it was time to start training.

An adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted regarding Prigozhin’s possible demise: “We have to wait for the fog of war to clear. However, it is clear that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own beastly fear – the very one that nullified him in June 2023 – and was waiting for the moment.”

Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports suspended flights early on Friday, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

Residents of the Russian regions of Tula and Kaluga earlier posted on social media about explosions they heard in the night, Russian online media outlet Baza reported.

Flights were also briefly disrupted on Tuesday and Wednesday during Ukrainian drone attacks.

A Ukrainian evacuee in the UK has become the first to be employed as a bus driver through a recruitment scheme.

Volodymyr Syrotiuk, 61, worked in a warehouse and drove heavy goods vehicles near Kyiv before the invasion by Russia in February 2022.

He has since settled in Brighton and has joined Brighton and Hove Buses as a driver.

The US will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly US-made F-16 fighter jets, beginning at an Air National Guard base in October, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

The training is part of a US and European effort to get the advanced fighter jets to Ukraine for its defence against invading Russian forces.

The announcement came as president Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to commemorate Ukraine’s Independence Day and to reiterate support for the effort to fight back Russian troops.

The two discussed the F-16 training, and mr Biden assured Mr Zelensky of an expedited approval for other nations to transfer their F-16s to Ukraine once training is completed, the White House said in a statement.

Mr Zelensky thanked his American counterpart, Congress and “all Americans” in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“The US took the lead in rallying global support for Ukraine. This crucial leadership enabled our struggle and bent the arc of history toward good.”

A group of Russian militants who fight on the Ukrainian side called on the Wagner Group of mercenaries to switch sides and join their ranks to avenge the deaths of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and their commander Dmitry Utkin.

Russian air authorities have said Prigozhin, Utkin and eight other people were on a private plane that crashed with no survivors north of Moscow on Wednesday.

“You are facing a serious choice now – you can stand in a stall of Russia’s defence ministry and serve as watchdogs for executors of your commanders or take revenge,” commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) Denis Kapustin said in a video address published late on Thursday.

“To take revenge you need to switch to Ukraine’s side,” the commander said.

The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries staged a mutiny against Russian military commanders in which they took control of a southern city, Rostov, and advanced towards Moscow before turning around 200 kilometres from the capital.

Russia has opened an investigation into the crash, but its outcome is unlikely to shake a widespread belief that Prigozhin was killed as an act of vengeance for staging the mutiny.

RVC commander Kapustin, a far-right Russian national, founded the armed group a year ago. RVC fights on the Ukrainian side and has said it was behind several military attacks on Russian border regions.

“Let’s end the bloody meat grinder of the special military operation,” Mr Kapustin said in his address to Wagner fighters using the Russian official name for the invasion of Ukraine.

“After that, we will march to Moscow and this time we will not stop 200km before the Moscow ring road but go to the end,” he said.