Discover the latest news on the alleged demise of Prigozhin in a plane crash. Stay informed about the United States' perspective and the details surrounding this event

 

The United States says Prigozhin "probably" died in Wednesday's plane crash

The United States believes Wagner founder Eugene Prigojine "probably"

died in a plane crash near Moscow on Wednesday, the Pentagon brigadier general said. General Patrick Ryder said on Thursday. 

 

 "I won't go into detail about how we gather information, except that our initial assessment, based on various factors, is that he was probably killed," Ryder said.  

 

 Ryder also said that the Pentagon "at this time has no information to suggest" that Prigojine's plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

 

 Four US officials told CNN on Thursday that there was no evidence the plane was shot down by a missile. 

 

  US intelligence is still in the early stages of determining the cause of the incident. Authorities have warned it is too early to draw any conclusions, but several possibilities are being investigated, including an explosion on board that may have caused the disaster.  

 

 Another source close to Western intelligence, echoing US officials, said there was no evidence of a missile launch. 

 

 Officials said the US had seen no reports of the Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft being hit by a surface-to-air missile from a Russian air defense system or an air-to-air missile from a Russian fighter jet.

 

 

 The Russian investigative commission announced on Wednesday that it had opened a criminal case in connection with the disaster. According to Russian state media, Prigozhin was on the list of the plane's eight passengers. 

 

 The private jet crashed after about 30 minutes of flight time. According to flight tracking data from FlightRadar24, the plane was stabilizing at about 28,000 feet when it suddenly made erratic climbs and descents. At 18:19Local time data from the RM showed that the aircraft's rate of descent was approaching 8,000 feet per minute before transmission of altitude data ceased, an unusually rapid descent well outside the parameters of normal aircraft.  

 

 The plane was taking off from Moscow airport and en route to St. Petersburg when it crashed south of Tver on Wednesday afternoon. 

 

  Putin on Thursday expressed his sincere condolences to "the families of all the victims" of the disaster.He said he has known Prigozhin since the early 1990s and is a "talented businessman". 

 “In my experience, Putin is the greatest apostle of revenge. So I would be surprised if Prigozhin escaped another punishment for this. In that sense, the President is right. If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn't fire my Schnupper," Burns said in July.

 

 “If I were Mr. Prigozhin, I would still be very worried. NATO has an open door policy; “Russia has an open window policy,” said Blinken, also in July. 

 

 Some US officials were not entirely surprised when news of the plane crash broke in Russian state media. Authorities did not say the United States had confirmation that Prigozhin was on the plane.

 

 "We all saw him undead," said an American official.

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