Wagner Group

Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his silence Thursday on the plane crash a day earlier that reportedly killed mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and other senior members of the Wagner paramilitary group.

In televised comments Putin offered his "sincere condolences to the families of all the victims", describing the crash as a "tragedy".

Day 547 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Bulgaria's Minister of Defense Todor Tagarev admitted the possibility that an explosive device might have been planted on board the crashed plane in which Yevgeny Prigozhin was traveling.

According to him, it is very unlikely that in this case, it was a missile, because the effect would be completely different.

The head of the Wagner group that in June attempted to topple Russia's military leadership was on the passengers list of a plane that crashed Wednesday, Russian news agencies said.

A business jet with 10 people on board has crashed in Russia's Tver region, authorities in the country have confirmed.

Rosaviatsia, quoted by TASS, said that among the passengers was businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the private military company "Wagner".

Day 535 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Vladimir Putin has survived the most dramatic and direct challenge to his 23-year reign, and the mutinous mercenary oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin is in the process of being disarmed. Calm has been restored, at least on the surface. And in Ukraine the war grinds on. Now that the dust has settled, has the aborted insurrection in Russia changed anything? What have we learned?

"The committee analyzed possible threats, such as the dislocation of units of the Wagner group. Therefore, the Minister of National Defense, the chairman of the Committee, Mariusz Baszczak, decided to move our military formations from the west to the east of Poland," Hoffmann told the PAP agency, reports Reuters.

Day 511 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

This move should enable the transfer of special forces from the Thunder unit to the front lines in Ukraine, said Alexander Khinshtein, a member of the Russian parliament from Putin's United Russia party.