Wagner boss Prigozhin lastly confirmed lifeless

The Russian Investigative Committee, generally known as SK, claimed that the small print of the ten victims have been in keeping with these on the ­passenger checklist.

The jet of Prigozhin, 62, got here down north-west of Moscow.

The SK stated: “Molecular-genetic testing has been completed. The identities of all 10 deceased have been established. They correspond to the list in the flight manifest.”

The victims additionally included ­a number of different senior figures in Wagner, the Russian mercenary group arrange by Prigozhin and concerned in army operations in Ukraine, Syria and elements of Africa. Among them was the warlord’s equally feared deputy Dmitry Utkin, 53, who managed Wagner’s army operations.

Russian air investigators have been yesterday persevering with to look at the contents of two black containers discovered on the crash website.

The Kremlin has remained doggedly silent as to what might have triggered the Embraer Legacy 600 enterprise jet – flying from Moscow to St Petersburg – to seemingly explode earlier than plunging to the bottom. The US stated it had concluded a blast was behind the downing of the plane, though not from a ground-to-air missile. They additionally insisted it was not an accident however an assassination of Prigozhin.

An onboard bomb or an air-to-air missile stay the probably situations.

Russian investigators have been quizzing the plane’s engineer Sergey Kitrish, 41.

But claims that the Kremlin gave the order to kill Prigozhin have been a “complete lie”, Moscow authorities stated.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov added: “In the West, of course, this speculation comes from a certain angle.

“We don’t have many facts at the moment, the facts need to be clarified during the official investigation being carried out.” Reports have emerged the flight attendant on the plane, Kristina Raspopova, had seen “strange” repairs to the airplane forward of the flight.

The 39-year-old allegedly described the ordered fixes as “incomprehensible” in cellphone conversations with relations.

The crash got here two months after Prigozhin staged a coup, ordering his fighters to march on Moscow in a failed mutiny.

But his loss leaves Vladimir Putin with an issue as to what to do with 10,000 Wagner fighters.

The President ordered them on the weekend to signal an “oath of allegiance” to the Russian state.