The day following the crash of a jet that police claimed he was travelling on, Russian President Vladimir Putin implicitly confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group.

Putin reportedly praised Prigozhin a “talented man,” adding that he made big mistakes in his life, in an apparent compliment to his former close ally, whose fighters played a crucial fighting role in Ukraine.

He had a difficult destiny. He made some significant errors in judgement during his life, but he also succeeded in getting the job done, both for himself and, when I asked him to, for the greater good, said Putin.

He was addressing a gathering with Denis Pushilin, the Denis Pushilin-led Russian administration of Donetsk.

Prigozhin and top Wagner commander Dmitri Utkin were among the ten persons on board the Embraer aircraft that crashed on Wednesday in the Tver Region, roughly 300 kilometres northwest of the Russian capital, according to Rosaviatsiya, the Russian government body in charge of civil aviation.

There were none, it claimed.

No explanation for the fatal collision was provided, but rumours abounded—especially after Putin threatened the mutiny leaders with “inevitable punishment” for their “treason.”

Putin didn’t publicly respond to the business jet tragedy for nearly 24 hours.

The Russian Putin made no allusion to Moscow’s involvement in the jet accident.

Instead, he emphasised that Prigozhin’s mercenary troop had contributed significantly to the combat in Ukraine and that it would not be forgotten.