Russian President Vladimir Putin has indirectly confirmed the death of the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin the day after the crash of a jet, which authorities said he was travelling in.

In an apparent tribute to his former close confidante – whose fighters played a crucial combat role in Ukraine – Mr Putin called Mr Prigozhin a “talented man,” Russian news agencies reported.

“He was a man of a complicated fate. He made some serious mistakes in his life, but he also achieved the needed results – both for himself and, when I asked him to, for the common cause,” Mr Putin added.

He was speaking at a meeting with the Russian head of the Donetsk administration, Denis Pushilin.

The Russian government agency in charge of civil aviation, Rosaviatsiya, said Mr Prigozhin, as well as top Wagner commander Dmitri Utkin, were among the 10 people on board the Embraer plane that crashed on Wednesday in the Tver Region, about 300km north-west of Moscow.

It said there were no survivors.

No cause was given for the deadly crash, but speculation was rife, in particular after Mr Putin had vowed “inevitable punishment” against the mutiny leaders who he had accused of “treason.”

It took nearly 24 hours for Mr Putin to react publicly to the crash.

The Russian leader did not imply that Moscow had any part in the plane crash.

He stressed instead that Mr Prigozhin’s mercenary force had played a decisive role in the fighting in Ukraine, one which would not be forgotten.

The Russian leader expressed his condolences to the relatives of the Kremlin loyalist-turned traitor and added that the crash was being investigated.

Two months ago, Mr Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny against the Russian military leadership, in what was the gravest challenge ever to Mr Putin’s more-than-two-decade grip on power.

Mr Putin described the revolt as a “stab in the back and said that it could have caused the outbreak of “civil war.”

The background to the day-long uprising – and the deal to end it – remain murky but Mr Putin had vowed “inevitable punishment” against the mutiny leaders.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had nothing to do with whatever fate befell Mr Prigozhin.

“Everyone understands who is involved,” he told journalists, adding that the death of the mercenary leadership benefits Kyiv “in a certain sense.”

International leaders have also been cautious in commenting on the crash and the intense speculation around it.

(NAN)