The president of Ukraine has claimed his Russian counterpart killed warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin - a transfer he stated would sign Vladimir Putin's "weakness".

Answering a query concerning the chief of Russia, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February final 12 months, Volodymyr Zelensky stated: "The fact that he killed Prigozhin - at least that’s the information we all have, not any other kind - that also speaks to his rationality, and about the fact that he is weak."

The Ukrainian president did not present any proof to again up this declare.

Mr Prigozhin, the chief of the mercenary Wagner Group which staged a mutiny in opposition to the Kremlin defence management in June, died in a but unexplained airplane crash on August 23.

Aboard his non-public jet have been additionally Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekalov, two different key members of Wagner - an organisation UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman just lately stated will probably be proscribed as a terrorist group in Britain.

In the wake of the airplane crash, many Wagner supporters in addition to individuals within the West - together with US President Joe Biden - instructed little occurs in Russia with out Putin figuring out it.

The Kremlin has since slapped down as a "complete lie" the allegation the Kremlin was concerned within the crash.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated two days after the incident: "In the West of course this speculation comes from a certain angle. It’s all a complete lie. Of course when we talk about this issue we should be guided only by facts."