Wagner group a 'broken' force, says Ukraine minister

Russia's paramilitary group Wagner is a spent force, Ukraine's defence minister said Friday, after the presumed death of the mercenary outfit's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

"There is actually no longer a Wagner group left as they were a year ago, as a serious fighting force," Oleksii Reznikov told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

"They are broken."

The minister also believed that Prigozhin's presumed demise had weakened Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Because it has shown the world: if Putin does a deal with someone and breaks the deal, then that means that he cannot be trusted," said Reznikov in extracts of the interview released by the newspaper ahead of its publication on Sunday.

There has been widespread speculation in the West that the Kremlin may have been involved in the death of Prigozhin since Wednesday, when a private jet reportedly carrying the Wagner chief crashed between Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Prigozhin was branded a "traitor" by Putin after Wagner launched its rebellion in June, in what was seen as the biggest challenge to the Russian president's authority since he came to power.

But Prigozhin was offered amnesty in Belarus following the mutiny, in a deal that Moscow said was brokered by Minsk.

The Kremlin on Friday dismissed speculation over its possible involvement in the crash as an "absolute lie".