Moscow: The mercenary leader's plane crashed with no survivors two months after he led a mutiny against army chiefs, and on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to his family. Despite stating that the information was preliminary and under review, two US officials told Reuters that Washington thought a surface-to-air missile that originated from inside Russia most likely brought down the plane. They provided no evidence and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

There has been no official word from Moscow on what may have caused Wednesday night's crash, despite Russian investigators having opened a criminal investigation. Beyond a statement from the aviation authority stating that Prigozhin was on board, there had been no official confirmation of Prigozhin's death prior to Putin's remarks.

Putin finally spoke out, praising Prigozhin as a successful businessman he had known since the 1990s and announcing that the crash investigation would take some time.

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The leader of the Wagner mercenary group and a self-declared enemy of the army's top brass due to what he claimed was their inept handling of Russia's war in Ukraine, Prigozhin, 62, was a self-declared enemy.

Prior to that, Putin virtually addressed the BRICS summit in South Africa, where his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was also present. Neither mentioned the reported plane crash that claimed the lives of ten people.
State media barely mentioned the disaster.

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In addition to carrying senior members of Prigozhin's team, the Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region north of Moscow was travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

On stretchers, men were seen being taken away from the crash site on Thursday morning by a Reuters reporter. Nearby a wooded area where forensic investigators had pitched a tent, pieces of the plane, including its tail, were scattered on the ground.

According to the Baza news outlet, which has reliable sources in law enforcement, investigators are concentrating on the hypothesis that one or more bombs may have been planted on board.

On June 23–24, Prigozhin led a coup against the army's top brass that, according to Putin, might have swung Russia into civil war.

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The mercenary leader also criticised Russia's war in Ukraine, which Moscow refers to as a "special military operation," for months and attempted to remove Valery Gerasimov, the head of the General Staff, and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

A purported Kremlin agreement that saw Prigozhin consent to move to Belarus' neighbouring country put an end to the mutiny. But he seemed to have unrestricted movement inside of Russia.

On Monday, Prigozhin published a video address that he claimed was produced in Africa. He showed up at a July summit between Russia and Africa in St. Petersburg.