Putin offers condolences after crash

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday offered his sincere condolences to the families of all victims, one day after a plane crash that was believed to have killed Yevgeny Prigozhin and other senior members of the Wagner private military group.

In televised comments, Putin called the crash a tragedy and paid tribute to Prigozhin and the group.

Putin recalled that he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s and described him as "a man of difficult fate" who had "made serious mistakes in life".

"And he achieved the results he needed — both for himself and, when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months. He was a talented man, a talented businessman," Putin said.

There is not yet definitive proof that Prigozhin was onboard the plane that crashed with no survivors, but it is "highly likely" he is dead, Britain's Ministry of Defense was quoted by Reuters as saying on Friday.

Russian authorities have said Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on the plane, which fell from the sky northwest of Moscow on Wednesday evening. The plane also carried nine others who are also presumed dead.

Russian investigators have opened a probe into what happened, but have not officially confirmed the identities of the 10 bodies recovered from the wreckage.

Authorities said that among those listed as passengers on the plane was Dmitry Utkin, an official who managed Wagner's operations and allegedly served in the Russian military intelligence.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Kyiv had nothing to do with the incident.

The Kremlin said on Friday that Western suggestions that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an "absolute lie".

On Thursday, Putin said the Wagner members who had died in the crash had made a "significant contribution" to Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.

"We remember that, we know that, and we will not forget that," Putin said, adding that an investigation into the crash would take time.

A preliminary intelligence assessment from the United States concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane crash, The Associated Press reported.

Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said press reports that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane were inaccurate. He declined to say whether the US suspected a bomb or believed the crash was an assassination.

At Wagner's headquarters in St. Petersburg, lights were turned on in the shape of a large cross. Prigozhin's supporters built a makeshift memorial, piling red and white flowers outside the building on Thursday, along with company flags and candles.

Meanwhile, Russia downed a barrage of 42 Ukrainian drones near Crimea, Moscow's Defense Ministry said on Friday, in the largest recent air attack on the peninsula and a day after Kyiv claimed a special forces raid on the territory.

Reports of the aerial attack came as the Pentagon said it would begin F-16 training for Ukrainian pilots in the US next month.

Agencies contributed to this story.