24th August, 2023
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin has broken his silence on the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash on Wednesday, describing him as a man of difficult fate.
Prigozhin died in a plane crash on 23 August 2023. The plane was enroute from Moscow to Saint Petersburg when it crashed, killing all 10 people on board.
Making his first public comment on Prigozhin’s death, Putin expressed sincere condolences to the families of all the victims.
He said the incident was a tragedy.
“First of all, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims, this is always a tragedy. Indeed, if they were there, it seems … preliminary information suggests that Wagner Group employees were also on board,” he stated during a meeting on Thursday.
Putin said he had known Prigozhin for a very long time, and that he was a talented man and a talented businessman.
According to him, “He was a man of difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results needed both for himself and when I asked him about it – for a common cause, as in these last months.”