Major General Sergei Goryachev, Chief of Staff of the 35th Russian Army, is reportedly killed in a rocket attack in the Zaporizhia region.
A top Russian officer has reportedly been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during Kiev’s counter-offensive against Russian forces, a Russian-backed official in Ukraine said, offering condolences.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in part of the southern Zaporizhia region controlled by Moscow, said on Tuesday that Russian Major General Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of the Russian 35th Army, had been killed at the Zaporizhia a day earlier. front where Ukrainian troops have recaptured part of the territory.
There was no immediate confirmation of the news of Goryachev’s death from the Russian Defense Ministry.
Goryachev, 52, was a highly decorated officer. During his career, he fought in the Second Chechen War, commanded a tank brigade, oversaw a Russian military base in Tajikistan and led Russian troops in Moldova’s breakaway pro-Russian region of Transnistria, according to Reuters news agency.
If confirmed, Goryachev’s death will be the first Russian senior officer killed in Ukraine in nearly a year. His death was first reported by “Voenkor Z”, a Russian war correspondent and military blogger.
Rogov wrote on his official channel on the Telegram messaging application: “The army has lost one of its brightest and most effective military commanders, who combined the highest professionalism with personal courage. My deepest and sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased!”
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with 18 prominent Russian military bloggers and war correspondents on Tuesday in an effort to bolster his narrative of the positive progress of the war in Ukraine.
The meeting, in which Putin said Ukraine had suffered “catastrophic” losses in its counter-offensive, comes amid “widespread discontent in the Russian information space” after drone strikes on Russian territory and border raids by pro-Ukrainian but Russian armed groups, a leading war monitor said on Wednesday.
Russian “milbloggers” who were more critical of Putin’s war effort were not invited to the discussion, the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a daily briefing on the war in Ukraine.
“Putin is likely setting information conditions to prevent possible lines of attack against the Kremlin in the event of a Russian failure” in Ukraine, the ISW said, adding that the Russian president may be aware “that committed pro-war figures” and the influence of military blogs are “his main following as he calls on the Russian public to prepare for a protracted war in Ukraine”.
“Putin’s involvement with these Milbloggers could suggest that the Kremlin will increasingly rely on the wider ultra-nationalist community to continue supporting the war effort,” the ISW said.
The ISW also noted Russian reports of Major General Goryachev’s death in the Zaporizhia region, saying his reported death means “some Russian senior military commanders continue to operate close to the front line and remain exposed to pinpoint Ukrainian strikes”.
6/ #Putin likely to remain in public contact with selected pro-#Kremlin milbloggers to further leverage the community to expand its support among Russian ultra-nationalists. https://t.co/8JcQioF3T2 pic.twitter.com/UrMvjy7XKL
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) June 14, 2023