Russian officials have claimed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on an ill-fated plane which crashed in a field north of Moscow, killing all ten onboard, two months after his failed coup attempt against Putin’s regime.
The Federal Air Transport Agency published a list of all those it believed were onboard the private jet, including Prigozhin, his deputy Dmitry Utkin and five others, believed to be close allies.
Prigozhin, known as Putin’s chef and with longstanding links to the Kremlin dictator, has long been thought to be a prime target for Russian authorities after his uprising failed and he was exiled to Belarus.
Ten bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage, local emergency services have said, but MailOnline is unable to independently verify whether Prigozhin was one of them.
Reports of a second plane, also linked to Prigozhin, in the area at the time of the crash that later flew to Moscow has fuelled suggestions the warlord cheated death by travelling in a different plane or even that it may be his ruse to escape into exile.
Both state media and Telegram accounts affiliated to Wagner have reported Prigozhin’s and Utkin’s deaths.
While the fate of his bitter rival remained unknown, the Russian President enjoyed a WW2 memorial concert and handed out military honours in Kursk, Russia.
Washington confirmed on Wednesday evening that President Biden has been briefed, and the UK government confirmed it was ‘monitoring the situation closely’.
Video footage purportedly shows the aircraft falling out of the sky in the Bologovsky district in the Tver region, 60 miles north of Moscow on Friday. A burning wreckage, which appears to be of a plane, was later seen in a field, with unconfirmed images showing it completely ablaze.
Prigozhin, 62, has been increasingly careful since he led a coup against Putin’s regime exactly two months ago.
After its failure, he had been warned that his life was in danger. He was known to take huge care over his security and is rumoured to have not been onboard the fateful plane, despite state TV asserting otherwise.
Sources close to him said that while the aircraft belonged to him, he usually flew on another aircraft.
