2023-08-24 23:56:05
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Defense said on Thursday there was currently no information to suggest a surface-to-air missile brought down a plane believed to be carrying Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
US Air Force Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, offered no evidence or further details about what US officials believe caused the crash when making his comments at a news conference at the Pentagon.
Reuters had reported earlier on Thursday that the United States was looking into a range of theories about what caused Prigozhin’s plane to crash, and quoted two US officials as saying a surface-to-air missile likely hit it.
Those officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that the information was still preliminary and under review, and did not rule out a change in assessment.
“We don’t have any information to indicate at this time to the press that there was some kind of surface-to-air missile that brought down the plane,” Ryder told reporters.
Russian air authorities said Prigozhin, his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin and eight others were on the private plane that crashed without survivors northwest of Moscow on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported a different theory, citing unnamed US officials: that a bomb on board the aircraft or some other sabotage caused the crash.
It is not uncommon for there to be competing, even contradictory, intelligence opinions within the US government in the hours and days following major international events.
The fall came two months after Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries staged a mutiny in which they took control of a southern city, Rostov, and advanced towards Moscow.
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he was not surprised by reports that Prigozhin died in a plane crash, adding that not much happens in Russia that President Vladimir Putin is not behind.
Putin said on Thursday he wanted to express sincere condolences to the families of those killed and said it was necessary to await the outcome of the official investigation.
Prigozhin, 62, has frequently criticized the Russian army’s top brass for what he said was its incompetent conduct of the war in Ukraine.
The Embraer executive jet model that crashed in Russia recorded just one accident in more than 20 years of service, and the episode was not related to a mechanical failure.
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