The Russian authorities have officially confirmed the death of the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, with investigators saying on Sunday that genetic testing showed that the victims of a plane crash last week matched all the names on the jet’s manifest.
Mr. Prigozhin was presumed to have died in a plane crash on Wednesday, an incident that came two months after he launched a failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership and which U.S. and Western officials believe was the result of an explosion on board. However, the Russian authorities had said they were awaiting the results of an investigation before confirming the identities of those on board.
Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s investigative committee, said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday that the identities of all 10 dead had been established and that they corresponded to those listed on the flight log.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday, in his first comments on the crash, spoke obliquely of Mr. Prigozhin’s death, referring to him in the past tense, but did not confirm it. “He made some serious mistakes in life, but he also achieved necessary results,” Mr. Putin said.
Some European leaders, many Western news outlets and people close to Mr. Prigozhin’s Wagner paramilitary force have speculated that Mr. Putin had Mr. Prigozhin killed in retaliation for his brief mutiny in June — suggestions the Kremlin on Friday dismissed as an “absolute lie.”
