The Kremlin said on Friday that the mercenary Wagner Group, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed to have died in a plane crash on Wednesday, has no formal legal existence.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Wagner exists as a group that has made a "big contribution" to Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, and he praised its fighters' "heroism."

The Wagner mercenaries in June briefly attempted to march on Moscow in a mutiny aimed at ousting Prigozhin's rivals in the defense establishment, a rebellion condemned by President Vladimir Putin as a treacherous "stab in the back."