Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death was confirmed by DNA testing, officials said.
August 27, 2023, 7:20 AM
LONDON and AMSTERDAM — Remains found after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private plane crashed last week were confirmed by genetic testing to be those of the Wagner Group leader, Russian investigators said on Sunday.
Ten people died when the jet fell from the sky near the town of Kuzhenkino, north of Moscow, on August 23.
A law enforcement officer works at the site of a plane crash near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region, on August 24, 2023.
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DNA tests showed that the remains recovered from the site matched all 10 people on the passenger list, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Sunday. The remains “conform to the manifest,” committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
“Molecular and genetic tests have been completed as part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region. According to their finding, all ten victims have been identified. They fully match the list on the flight manifest,” the committee said in a statement to Interfax, the Russian newswire.
A man lays flowers at the makeshift memorial in honor of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy figure who managed Wagner’s operations and allegedly served in Russian military intelligence, in Moscow, on August 24, 2023.
Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
The crash may have been caused by an explosion on board the plane, perhaps by a well-placed bomb, U.S. officials told ABC News last week, describing their findings from an initial investigation.
ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva contributed to this report.
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