Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country played no role in a Wednesday plane crash that killed 10 people — allegedly including Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“We have no relationship with this,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.
“Everyone understands who has a relationship,” the Ukrainian leader added.
His remarks follow initial reports from state media that listed Prigozhin as one of the passengers on the plane that crashed in the Tver region of Russia, about 100 miles northwest of Moscow.
Russian officials later confirmed that Prigozhin, 62, was on the plane.
The crash comes two months after the Wagner Group’s attempted rebellion to oust the Kremlin’s military leadership.
Prigozhin, who founded Wagner in 2014, urged his mercenary group to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. They also challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for the country’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
The Wagner leader ultimately ordered his private army to stop its advance after reaching an agreement in which Russia would drop its charges against him and he would relocate his troops to Belarus.
President Biden was briefed on the plane crash, according to National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. Watson wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that no one should be surprised if the reports on the matter were true.
Prigozhin was a longtime ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin before the rebellion. Being known as “Putin’s chef,” for his catering contracts at the Kremlin and he also founded the Internet Research Agency, the agency linked to meddling in the 2016 election.