Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first public comments Thursday on the plane crash believed to have killed Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, saying he was "a man of difficult fate."

Putin said he was sending condolences to "Wagner Group employees" on board the plane that crashed on Wednesday.

"First of all, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims, this is always a tragedy. Indeed, if they were there, it seems ... preliminary information suggests that Wagner Group employees were also on board," Putin said during a meeting with the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin in the Kremlin.

Putin said he'd known Prigozhin "for a very long time," and that he was "a talented man, a talented businessman."

"He was a man of difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results needed both for himself and when I asked him about it - for a common cause, as in these last months," the Russian president said.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.