assessment. however, the pentagon press secretary, brigadier general patrick ryder, declined to give any details about how the department made that determination. while the us intelligence community is still assessing what caused wednesday s plane crash, the pentagon said there aren t any indication that a surface to air missile took down the plane. british defense sources have told the bbc they believe russia s fsb spy agency is most likely to have been responsible. ukraine s president volodymyr zelensky has denied any involvement. he told journalists quote everyone is aware who is involved. crash investigators have been combing through the wreckage beyond the passenger list there s still no official confirmation of who was on board. the apparent death of mr prizoghin will have global implications. as well as fighting in ukraine, his mercenary group has been active in parts of africa. earlier, the bbc spoke exclusively to ukraine s deputy minister of defence volodymyr havrylov
meanwhile vladimir putin has broken his silence over the downing of the jet, saying the head of the mercenary group was a talented person who made serious mistakes in life . russia s president also sent condolences to the families of all 10 people said to be on board the plane. the bbc has spoken exclusively to ukraine s deputy minister of defence volodymyr havrylov on what yevgeny prigozhin s death means in the war. this person is criminal number one to us. we saw his bad thing done in the ukraine. and his team, his groups, his force was very brutal in this war. they never saved lives of their people, but at the same time they never save the lives of their enemies as well. this was a very dangerous group of people. and therefore the leadership is very crucial. because prigozhin was
Though labeled an accident, numerous lingering questions in the media have cast doubt on this narrative. Given the Kremlin's history of dealing with opponents, defectors, and dissenters, including the incarcerated Alexey Navalny, who stated in a blog that Putin does not have an appetite for such insults, suspicion has swirled.