The United States does not yet have comprehensive information about the situation with the crash of the plane that may have been carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, but believes that he was most likely killed.

Source: European Pravda, citing a speech by Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder made at a briefing on Thursday

Quote: "Our initial assessment is that it's likely Prigozhin was killed. We are continuing to assess the situation," Ryder said in response to a question about the assessment of the situation with the leader of the Wagnerists.

"There's no information to suggest there was a surface-to-air missile takedown of the plane. According to our assessment, this information is not accurate," he added.

Details: The Pentagon spokesman declined to provide other details, saying that the United States has no additional information about the likely death of Prigozhin.

Background: Earlier, the Reuters news agency, citing two American officials, reported that the plane, whose passengers indicated the top of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), could have been shot down by a missile from the territory of Russia.

The New York Times and The Associated Press, citing informed sources, wrote that Western intelligence agencies consider the explosion on board to be the probable cause of the plane crash with the head of the Wagner PMC.

On Wednesday evening, Russian media and the Federal Air Transport Agency reported that a plane crashed in Russia. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, was among the passengers. It is reported that all 10 people who were on board were killed, including Prigozhin's deputy, Dmitry Utkin, who went under the alias Wagner.

In June of this year, the Wagner Group made an unsuccessful attempt at rebellion. After that, Prigozhin was allegedly supposed to stay in Belarus by agreement with the self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. However, after that, the leader of the Wagnerites was repeatedly noticed in Russia and even in Africa.

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