Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in Russia plane crash: reports

A business jet en-route from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed Wednesday, killing all ten people on board, Russian emergency officials said.

Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list, officials said, but it wasn't immediately clear if he was on board.

Unconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin, 62, founder of the Wagner private military company.

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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.

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The bodies of four people have been found at the crash site, TASS reported, citing emergency services. It added that the plane "burned up" on impact after being in the air for about half-an-hour.

While Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing emergency officials, that eight bodies were found at the site of the crash.

The private Embraer Legacy aircraft came down near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region, more than 350 kilometres north-west of Moscow, according to Russian emergency services.

According to preliminary information, all on board were killed, the agency said, adding that they "are conducting search operations".

Flight data shows the Prigozhin-linked plane reached an altitude of some 26,000 feet after take off from Moscow, before data transmission stopped at around 6.13pm local time (1.13am Thursday AEST).

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.

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.

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.

Wagner troops seized control of southern Russian city Rostov-on-Don before threatening to march towards Moscow, leaving police to block all roads leading to the capital.

However, the armed mutiny against Russia's military leadership was short-lived, lasting just two days.

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."

As the news about the crash was breaking, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at an event commemorating the Battle of Kursk, hailing the heroes of Russia's "the special military operation" in Ukraine.