Wangner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin | File image
Guwahati, August 24: Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary force Wagner, was listed among 10 passengers reported killed when a private jet crashed north of Moscow on Wednesday.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred exactly two months after Prigozhin led his fighters in a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership.
There was no official comment from the Kremlin or the Defence Ministry on the fate of Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group and a self-declared enemy of the army's leadership over what he argued was its incompetent prosecution of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Wednesday's crash in the Tver region, north-west of the capital Moscow, comes on the same day that senior Russian general Sergei Surovikin was reportedly sacked as air force chief.
Gen Surovikin was known to have good relations with Prigozhin and had not been seen in public since the mutiny.
Prigozhin's aircraft - an Embraer-135 (EBM-135BJ) - was flying from Moscow to St Petersburg on Wednesday with seven passengers and three crew, Russia's Rosaviatsia aviation authority said.
Senior Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin - who founded the group in 2014 - was also on the passenger list, it said.
The plane is reported to have come down near the village of Kuzhenkino, about half-way between Moscow and St Petersburg.
All 10 bodies have been recovered, Russia's state-run news agency Interfax said.