Fragments of grenades were found in the bodies of the victims of the plane in which the leader of the Wagner group was flying.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday suggested that the plane crash that killed the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in August was caused by the explosion of hand grenades inside the plane, and not by rocket fire, the newspaper reported. Reuters.

“Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash,” Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, later suggesting that the plane had been blown up from the inside.

“There was no external impact on the plane – this is already an established fact,” Putin said, refuting claims by unnamed US officials who said shortly after the crash that the plane had been shot down.

The private Embraer plane carrying Prigozhin crashed north of Moscow, killing all ten people on board, including two other senior members of the Wagner paramilitary group, four of Prigozhin’s bodyguards and the three-member crew.