RUSSIA'S investigative committee has said it has confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the mercenary group Wagner, was killed in a plane crash.
Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement that forensic testing identified all 10 bodies recovered at the site of Wednesday’s crash and the findings “conform to the manifest” of the plane.
The statement did not offer any details as to what might have caused the crash.
Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, along with some of his top lieutenants, were on the list of the passengers and crew members on board the plane.
Prigozhin, 62, died two months after he mounted a day-long mutiny against Russia’s military that President Vladimir Putin decried as “treason”.
The Kremlin cut a deal with Prigozhin to end the armed revolt that allowed him to walk free without any charges levied against him.
The brief uprising posed the biggest challenge to Putin’s authority in his 23-year rule.
