Investigators have picked through the wreckage of a private plane said to have been carrying Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin that crashed on Wednesday with no survivors, two months after he led a mutiny against the army high command.
Here are the 10 people, including other senior figures from Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group, reported by Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia to have been on board the Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet:
Yevgeny Prigozhin
Prigozhi, 62, soared to prominence after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine where his fighters including thousands of released convicts led the Russian capture of the city of Bakhmut. He accused Russia’s military brass of incompetence and even treason in prosecuting the war and led a two-day mutiny in June. The mutiny was defused by a deal that, among other things, dropped criminal charges against him.
Dmitry Utkin
A retired special forces officer, a member of the GRU military intelligence service and a veteran of Russia’s wars in Chechnya, Utkin was responsible for command and combat training, according to investigations by the Dossier Center and Bellingcat.
For a long time, Utkin was believed to be the founder of Wagner, but many analysts have now said that was a smokescreen for Prigozhin, who only recently acknowledged his leading role in the mercenary group.
Valery Chekalov
Chekalov served as Wagner’s logistics mastermind. A longtime employee of Concord Holding — another Prigozhin company — he was in charge of managing mercenaries, securing weapons and running the oil, gas and mineral businesses in Syria and Africa, said Lou Osborn, who is an investigator with All Eyes on Wagner, a project focusing on the group.
The US sanctioned Chekalov for his ties to Prigozhin. The Wagner leader’s travel arrangements were among his responsibilities, according to Russian media.
Yevgeny Makaryan
Makaryan fought with Wagner in 2018, when he was wounded in Syria after coming under withering US air raids that killed dozens of Wagner fighters in what became known as the Battle of Khasham, according to the Dossier Center.
He remained a commander in the group, though little is known about his exact role.
Sergei Propustin
One of the rare published photographs of Propustin showed him dressed in black and wearing a cap, accompanying Prigozhin on a tour of Russian regions after the capture of Bakhmut. Not much is known about the 44-year-old.
Alexander Totmin
Thirty-year-old Totmin was among the few mercenaries in secretive Wagner active on social media, posting photos from various Russian cities including St. Petersburg where he lived.
Myrotvorets said Totmin had served in Wagner forces in Sudan.
Alexei Levshin
Levshin was the senior pilot of the plane that crashed. He worked as a pilot for at least 20 years, according to leaked data. Relatives told the Reuters news agency he went into business aviation “less than 10 years ago”.
How long Levshin worked on Prigozhin-affiliated flights could not be ascertained. Relatives said his work was a “taboo subject” in the family.
Rustam Karimov
Karimov was the co-pilot of the plane and the youngest victim of the crash aged 29.
Karimov’s father told Russian media that he took a job with the aviation company that provided Prigozhin’s flights three months ago. Karimov previously worked for S7, a major Russian airline.
Kristina Raspopova
Also known as Yadrevskaya, according to some sources, the 39-year-old was the plane’s flight attendant.
Nikolai Matuseev
According to a database of Wagner fighters, he was also referred to Matusevich. No details are known about him.
