Zelensky denies Ukrainian involvement in deadly Prigozhin plane crash

2023-08-24 13:09:22

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Archive – Yevgeny Prigozhin. – Europa Press/Contact/Pool /Wagner Group – Archive

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MADRID, 24 (EUROPA PRESS) – The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, spoke for the first time on Thursday about the plane crash in which the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeni Prigozhin, died, to deny any involvement of Kiev in what happened .

“We have nothing to do with this, that’s for sure. I think everyone realizes who is related to all this,” Zelenski concluded at a joint press conference with his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

“When Ukraine asked the countries of the world for planes, we were not referring to this, but to something completely different, that we wanted support. Although, probably, this will also help in some way,” he said.

For its part, the Intelligence services of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine have been convinced that Russia is behind the plane crash on Wednesday in which the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeni Prigozhin, died, disgraced after his short-lived attempt. of rebellion two months ago now.

“Only Russian propaganda can assume the probability that in this case some fortuitous accident may occur. It is clear that it is a deliberate terrorist act,” its manager, Andri Yusov, has expressed in these terms on Ukrainian television.

Yusov has pointed out that although the information that Prigozhin was on that plane still needs to be verified “thoroughly”, the most likely scenario is that he was traveling on the damaged device.

However, he has assured that what happened this Wednesday in the Russian region of Tver, where the plane in which Prigozhin was traveling and nine other people crashed, including Dimitri Utkin, another of the strongmen of the Wagner Group, is typical of the methods applied by a failed State.

He has ensured that the Russians “eat each other, only cooked in various ways, some are simmered, others are quickly fried, or raw, or simply salted”, he has said in what seems to be an allusion to the past of Prigozhin in catering business, which earned him the nickname of Putin’s cook.

For now, kyiv’s main partners have preferred to remain cautious regarding this new turn of events in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The doubts raised by an event like this are mixed at the same time with the conviction that nothing happens in Russia without Putin’s knowledge.