Wagner Group commander Dmitry Utkin was on the aircraft with Yevgeny Prigozhin that crashed north of Moscow, the Russian civil aviation authority has mentioned.
There had been no survivors after the jet crashed close to the village of Kuzhenkino Tver area, north of Moscow, in accordance with Russian authorities.
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Civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia printed the names of seven passengers, together with Wagner boss Prigozhin and Utkin, together with three crew members it mentioned had been on board.
Eight our bodies have been recovered from the wreckage thus far, authorities mentioned.
Utkin – a former Russian soldier reportedly adorned with Nazi tattoos – has been described as Prigozhin’s right-hand man and allegedly performed a key position within the founding of the Wagner Group.
Previously, Utkin was a lieutenant colonel within the GRU army intelligence service and was deployed twice to Chechnya.
The 53-year-old has additionally been accused of involvement in quite a few battle crimes, together with in Homs, Syria, the place he reportedly gave the order to beat a deserter to demise and demanded the act be filmed.
Video footage seems to point out the second of the aircraft crash.
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In the clip, the plane is seen plummeting to the bottom, adopted by a path of smoke – earlier than it smashes right into a discipline.
The aircraft was heading from Moscow to St Petersburg.
Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny in opposition to Russia’s prime army brass in June, and was described on the time by Vladimir Putin as a “traitor”.
The Russian mercenaries surged a lot of the technique to Moscow earlier than Prigozhin referred to as off the advance and ordered them to show again to “avoid bloodshed”.
The rebel ended when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stepped in to dealer a deal – which noticed Prigozhin agreeing to relocate to neighbouring Belarus.
The Kremlin mentioned his fighters would both retire, comply with him there, or be part of the Russian army.
In the aftermath, Andrei Gurulev, a retired basic and politician, mentioned Prigozhin and Utkin deserved “a bullet in the head” for his or her position within the tried rebel.
“I firmly believe that traitors in wartime must be executed,” he added.
Source: information.sky.com”