Russia’s Investigative Committee has confirmed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash.
The committee mentioned in a press release Sunday that after forensic testing, all 10 our bodies recovered on the website of the crash had been recognized, and their identities “conform to the manifest.”
Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week mentioned Prigozhin, together with a few of his high lieutenants, had been on the checklist of these on board the plane that crashed Wednesday.
His dying comes simply two months after he led a mutiny in opposition to the Kremlin’s high navy brass
(AP)
“As a part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver area, molecular-genetic examinations have been accomplished,” Russia’s Investigative Committee mentioned in a press release on its website on the Telegram messaging app.
“In response to their outcomes, the identities of all 10 dead had been established. They correspond to the checklist said in the flight sheet,” it mentioned.
Prigozhin’s non-public jet got here down north-west of Moscow, killing all these on board.
His right-hand man Dmitry Utkin was additionally on board the Embraer Legacy 600 jet, in addition to 5 different passengers and three crew members, based on the passenger checklist.
The Kremlin has denied hypothesis it was responsible for the crash.
Throughout a convention name with journalists on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed the BBC there was “plenty of hypothesis” across the “tragic” deaths.
“Within the West, after all, this hypothesis comes from a sure angle. It’s all a whole lie,” Mr Peskov went on.
Russian officers have opened an investigation into air site visitors violations however haven’t disclosed any additional particulars concerning the attainable trigger.
Prigozhin’s plane crash comes simply two months after his abortive mutiny on Russia’s high navy chiefs, which culminated in a march on Moscow.
President Vladimir Putin described that mutiny as a treacherous “stab in the again”, however later met with Prigozhin in the Kremlin and supplied his condolences to the households of those who died in the crash.
As soon as a businessman with a catering empire and an ally of Putin because the Nineties, Prigozhin went on to ascertain the Wagner Group in 2014, the mercenary power that has fought most of the hardest battles in Ukraine.
The US estimates that almost half of the 20,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine since December had been Wagner fighters in Bakhmut.
As his forces died en-masse, Prigozhin more and more started to make use of social media to accuse the Russian military of incompetence and even treason.
Extra follows on this breaking information story….
