The Kremlin on Wednesday said that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was downed on purpose.

“It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version – you know what we are talking about – let’s say, a deliberate atrocity,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media when asked about the investigation.

Asked if the International Civil Aviation Organization would investigate the crash, Peskov said that the circumstances made it different, though he cautioned that investigators had made no formal conclusions yet about what exactly took place.

“Let’s wait for the results of our Russian investigation,” Peskov said.

The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St Petersburg from Moscow crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on August 23, including two other top Wagner figures.

The private jet crashed two months to the day after Prigozhin led an abortive mutiny against Russia’s army top brass.