A business jet en-route from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed Wednesday, killing all ten people on board, Russian emergency officials said.
Russia’s civilian aviation regulator, Rosaviatsia, said Prigozhin was on the passenger list.
However, it was not immediately clear if he had boarded the flight.
Russia’s state news agency Tass cited emergency officials as saying that the plane carried three pilots and seven passengers.
The Federal Air Transport Agency has launched an investigation into the crash, which occurred in the Tver region more than 100 kilometres north of Moscow.
“An investigation has been launched into the crash of the Embraer aircraft, which occurred tonight in the Tver region. According to the list of passengers, among them is the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin,” the department noted.
Flight tracking data shows the Embraer Legacy registered to Wagner, that Prigozhin had used previously, took off from Moscow on Wednesday evening and its transponder signal disappeared minutes later.
The signal was lost in a rural region where there are no nearby airfields where the jet could have landed safely.
Earlier, the Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone had reported the jet was shot down by air defences in Tver region, north of Moscow.
Grey Zone said local residents heard bangs and saw vapour trails before the crash.
While Tass are reporting that the plane caught on fire after hitting the ground, with four bodies already recovered.
Prigozhin was sometimes called “Putin’s chef”, after regularly being entrusted to provide catering services to the Kremlin and it’s leader.
Wagner forces were heavily involved in capturing the eastern Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Prigozhin then spent months criticising Russian military leadership and the support it was giving his troops before he called for the armed rebellion in late June.
The armed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership was short-lived.
The Kremlin said Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus, and his fighters would either retire, follow him there, or join the Russian military.
Shortly after that, Wagner fighters set up camp in Belarus, but Prigozhin’s plane, according to media reports, was flying back and forth between Belarus and Russia.
This week, Prigozhin posted his first recruitment video since the mutiny, saying that Wagner is conducting reconnaissance and search activities, and “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free.”
