The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was among the passengers on a plane that went down in a disaster that took the lives of everyone on board, according to the Russian organisation in charge of civil aviation.
Earlier, a Wagner-linked Telegram channel known as Grey Zone said that an Embraer aircraft had been brought down by air defenses in the Tver region, which is located north of Moscow.
There were a total of ten people on board the jet that was travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg: seven passengers and three staff members.
Wagner boss Prigozhin killed in plane crash in Russia
In June, Prigozhin was the leader of a failed rebellion against the Russian military forces.
According to Grey Zone, witnesses in the area reported hearing two explosions and seeing two plumes of smoke before the collision.
According to the Tass news agency, the plane caught fire upon impact with the ground. The source also said that four people had already been found dead.
It was stated that the airplane had been flying for fewer than 45 minutes at the time.