Western intelligence suggests that an explosion could have occurred on Prigozhin's plane
American and European officials said the plane, which could have been carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin and other leaders of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), crashed due to an explosion inside the airliner.
Source: The New York Times; Associated Press
Details: This opinion was expressed by officials after reviewing preliminary intelligence reports.
A final conclusion has not yet been reached, but the explosion inside is the main version of the cause of the plane crash in a field between Moscow and St Petersburg.
The explosion could have been caused by a bomb or other device placed on board the plane. Although other versions are also being considered, such as low-quality fuel.
US officials say US intelligence has not confirmed Prigozhin's death. However, many experts said that he most likely died in a plane crash.
An unnamed Western official said his country had collected several pieces of evidence that Prigozhin was on board the plane.
US satellite intelligence has not detected a missile launch, and there is no other evidence that the plane was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile system.
US and European officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they believed Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the plane destroyed in an attempt to kill Prigozhin.
The Associated Press, citing US and European officials, also writes about the explosion as the main version.
Their sources did not go into the details of their assumptions about what could have caused the explosion.
Background:
- Earlier, on 24 August, US government officials said that the plane carrying Wagner Group leaders was likely to have been shot down by a missile fired from Russian territory.
- On Wednesday evening, Russian media and the Federal Air Transport Agency reported that a plane crashed in Tver Oblast. Among the passengers were Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner group, and his deputy Dmitry "Wagner" Utkin, whose alias gave the name to the group.
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