Top Russian general Sergei Goryachev killed in Ukraine

A top Russian general has been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during Kyiv’s escalating counteroffensive, a report said Tuesday.

Prominent pro-Russian war correspondent Yury Kotyonok revealed on his Telegram channel that Major-General Sergei Goryachev, Chief of Staff of Russia’s 35th Army, had been killed Monday on the Zaporizhzhia front, where Ukrainian forces have been regaining territory in recent days.

“War claims the best,” Kotyonok wrote.

“The army has lost one of its brightest and most effective military commanders, who combined the highest professionalism with personal courage.”

“Deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased!” the reporter added.

Goryachev’s death coincided with Russia Day, the country’s national holiday.

Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the annexed part of the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, took to Telegram to express his “most sincere condolences” to Goryachev’s family.

Goryachev, 52, was a highly-decorated officer. During his nearly 30-year military career, he fought in the Second Chechen War, commanded a tank brigade, oversaw a Russian military base in Tajikistan and led Russian forces in Moldova’s breakaway pro-Russian region of Transdniestria

Military bloggers reported that Goryachev and several other high-ranking officers were killed by one of the Storm Shadow long-range missiles that have been supplied to Ukraine by its Western allies.

There was no immediate confirmation of the deaths from Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Russia’s military does not report war casualties, but according to the independent news Telegram channel “Vazhnye Istorii,” Goryachev is possibly the 10th Russian general to be killed in Ukraine since the outbreak of the conflict in Feb. 2022 — and the first so far this year.

News of Goryachev’s killing comes as Ukrainian forces are stepping up their long-awaited conteroffesnvie and reporting advances near the cities of Bakhmut, Berdyansk, and Toretsk.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said the country’s troops have recaptured seven villages in eastern Ukraine in the past week.