Russian state media has confirmed the death of one of Russia’s top generals during heavy fighting in Ukraine’s Eastern Donbas region.

Major General Roman Kutuzov (the said top general) was killed while leading an assault on a Ukrainian settlement in the region, a reporter, Alexander Sladkov, with the state-owned Russia-1, revealed. According to Sladkov, General Kutuzov was commanding troops from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. However, Russia’s Defence Ministry is yet to comment on the reports.

“The general had led soldiers into attack, as if there are not enough colonels,” Sladkov wrote on the Telegram social media app. “On the other hand, Roman was the same commander as everyone else, albeit a higher rank.”

Ukraine’s military also confirmed the killing of General Kutuzov, without offering further details about the circumstances. His death came as rumours circulated on social media that a second senior officer, Lt. General Roman Berdnikov, Commander of the 29th Army, was also killed in fighting over the weekend. But the claims cannot be independently verified.

Deaths: True or False?

Russian commanders have been increasingly forced to the front in an attempt to drive forward the invasion, and in effect, Moscow confirmed the deaths of three senior generals.

On the part of Kyiv (Ukraine’s capital) it claims to have killed 12 generals, while Western intelligence officials revealed that at least, seven senior commanders have been killed. But there has been confusion over reports of the deaths of several other Russian officers. Three generals that Ukrainian forces claimed to have killed have subsequently been reported to be alive. In March 2022, Ukrainian forces said Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, was killed outside the country’s second city of Kharkiv. However, on May 23, 2022, Russian state media objected, saying, he was awarded a state honour, thereby dismissing reports of his death.

Another commander, Major General Magomed Tushaev, also appeared to be still alive and periodically appears in videos posted on social media. And on March 18, 2022, Kyiv alleged that Lt. General Andrey Mordvichev was killed in an airstrike in the Kherson region. However, he later appeared in a video meeting with Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. Later on, on May 30, 2022, Russia confirmed that he is still alive.

Does Russia Acknowledge the Death of Generals?

The deaths of generals are rarely officially acknowledged in Russia. In the case of Major General, Vladimir Frolov, no information about his death appeared in state media prior to his funeral in St. Petersburg in April 2022.

Russia lists military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures in Ukraine since March 25, 2022, when it said that about 1,351 Russian soldiers were killed since the start of Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, February 24, 2022.

In March 2022, an official within President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s inner circle revealed to the media that a team of Ukrainian military intelligence officers were tasked with locating and targeting Russia’s officer class. “They look for high profile generals, pilots, artillery commanders”, the official said, adding that the officers were then targeted either with sniper fire or artillery.