Leaders across the globe have reacted to the possible death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin after Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situation announced the crash of a private plane traveling between Moscow and St Petersburg saying Wagner chief Prigozhin was on the passenger list.
How Global leaders’ reactions to the possible death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin
Joe Biden, the president of the United States and the French president are among the top global leaders to have reacted to the crash and the suggested outcome.
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet that crashed north of Moscow, killing all 10 people, the Russian authorities said. It remains to be confirmed if the Wagner chief had actually boarded the flight.
US: Biden ‘not surprised’
President Joe Biden says he was “not surprised” at news that Prigozhin may have died in a plane crash in Russia.
“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised,” Biden said, adding, “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind. But I don’t know enough to know the answer.”
In a statement, US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson also said that “If confirmed, no one should be surprised,” by the apparent death. “The disastrous war in Ukraine led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now — it would seem — to this.”
France: ‘Reasonable doubts’ over Prigozhin plane crash
Paris said that there were “reasonable doubts” about the cause of the plane crash that presumably killed Prigozhin.
“We don’t yet know the circumstances of this crash. We can have some reasonable doubts,” government spokesman Olivier Veran told France 2 television.
Asked about US President Joe Biden’s comments, Veran agreed that “as a general rule, that’s a truth that can be established”.
Prigozhin was “the man who did Putin’s dirty work. What he has done is inseparable from the policies of Putin, who gave him responsibility to carry out abuses as the head of Wagner”, he said.
“Prigozhin leaves behind him mass graves. He leaves behind him messes across a large part of the globe, I’m thinking of Africa, Ukraine, and Russia itself.”
Ukraine: ‘Worth waiting for the fog of war’ to clear
Presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak wrote on social media the crash of the plane was a signal from the Kremlin to anyone who showed disloyalty but that it was worth waiting for the “fog of war” to clear before making concrete conclusions.
“The demonstrative elimination of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after the coup attempt is a signal from Putin to Russia’s elites ahead of the 2024 elections. ‘Beware! Disloyalty equals death’”, Podolyak wrote.
Estonia: Putin will ‘eliminate opponents’
Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, in an interview with CNN, said Putin will “eliminate opponents and that scares anyone who is thinking of expressing opinion different than his”.
Poland: Putin’s opponents ‘do not die naturally’
Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau told state news channel TVP Info, “We would have great trouble naming anyone who would intuitively think this was a coincidence. It so happens that political opponents whom Vladimir Putin considers a threat to his power do not die naturally.”
UK: ‘Avoid jumping to conclusions
Schools minister Nick Gibb says the government must “avoid jumping to conclusions” over the plane crash in Russia that reportedly killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
He said the government is monitoring the situation closely and working with its allies.
“I can’t go any further at the moment,” he added. “But of course, the government will have more to say once our assessment of it has happened, and conversations with allies reach clear conclusions.”
READ: BA.2.86: What to Be aware Of New Coronavirus Variation Nicknamed ‘Pirola’
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner, posted on the social media platform X that UK defence sources had told the British state broadcaster that the Russian federal security service most likely brought the plane down.
Source: aljazeera.com
The Ghana Education News Editorial Team is a specialized collective of education researchers, journalists, and policy analysts dedicated to providing high-fidelity reporting on the Ghanaian academic landscape. Serving as a primary bridge between governing bodies—including the Ghana Education Service (GES) and WAEC—and the public, the team leverages over a decade of combined experience to serve students, parents, and educators nationwide.
Lead Architect & Editor-in-Chief
The team is led by Wisdom Kojo Eli Hammond, a distinguished Ghanaian Edu-Tech Entrepreneur, AI Solutions Developer, and Product Architect with over 25 years of cross-disciplinary experience in education, finance, and digital media. Wisdom is the visionary force behind SkulManager, Ghana’s premier school management ecosystem, and the Lead Consultant at Education-News Consult.
A self-taught innovator, professional Web Designer, and regular columnist on GhanaWeb, Wisdom engineered SkulManager.com as the only platform strictly tailored to the GES Curriculum. His technical leadership has redefined educational assessment through a Hybrid Marking Ecosystem, pioneering the BECE and WASSCE Home Mock services—a unique fusion of WAEC-trained human examiners and advanced AI marking engines operational since 2022.
Wisdom’s 360-degree view of institutional challenges is grounded in his tenure as College President and Lecturer at Pinnacle College (Achimota), as well as his background as a school administrator and accountant. He is a dedicated lifelong learner currently advancing his studies at the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), with academic ties to the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
An accomplished author, his works include Returnees of the Dead Forest (UK Published), Simplified Beacon of Light (850+ Q&A), and The Leader in Me. A foundational pillar of the award-winning NGO Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), Wisdom is committed to building intelligent systems that solve societal problems and prepare the next generation of Ghanaian students for a digital future.
Contact: 0550360658 | Portals: GhanaEducation.org, GhanaEducationNews.org, SkulManager.com, BECEPrep.com. Educationnewsconsult.com etc