Budanov said there was no evidence of Prigozhin’s death

The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, said that there is no evidence of the death of the head of the Russian PMC Wagner, Evgeniy Prigozhin. He said this on Sunday, January 21, in an interview with the Financial Times.

He points out that the military company Wagner continues to recruit mercenaries and does not know if the group’s leader Prigozhin is definitely dead.

“Regarding Prigozhin, I will not rush to conclusions. I am not saying that he is not dead or that he is dead. I am saying that there is not a single piece of evidence that he is dead,” Budanov said.

Let’s recall that on August 23 in Russia, near the village of Kuzhenkino, Bologovsky district, Tver region, an Embraer business jet crashed, on which was the founder of Wagner PMC, Evgeniy Prigozhin.

Prior to this, on June 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin said that troops of the Russian Ministry of Defense attacked the location of the “Wagnerites” and that many of his people allegedly died there. He said he was hiring 25 thousand mercenaries, and they would “fix things” in Moscow. After the unsuccessful march, the Wagnerites moved to Belarus, where they trained the military.

Two months later, on August 23, 2023, the owner of PMC Wagner, Evgeniy Prigozhin, and the co-founder of the group, Dmitry Utkin, died in a plane crash.

Let’s remember that the President of Russia Vladimir Putin said that the founder of PMC Wagner “Prigozhin blew himself.” According to him, Prigozhin and Utkin blew themselves up and their plane with hand grenades and no one shot at them. In addition, Putin added that the leadership of Prigozhin and Wagner probably used drugs.

The assassination of Prigozhin was organized by a close friend of Putin – WSJ

Russia is looking for a replacement for “Wagnerites” in Africa – CNS