A Russian general has been killed in battles around Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian intelligence. He is the second general the Russian army has lost in Ukraine in a week, the Guardian reports.
From the intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported that Major General Vitaly Gerasimovthe first deputy commander of Russia’s 41st Army, was killed near the eastern city, along with other senior officers.
The ministry also released a recording allegedly of a conversation between two Russian FSB officers discussing Gerasimov’s death and complaining that their secure communications no longer function in Ukraine.
Investigative journalism website Bellingcat said it had confirmed Gerasimov’s death through a Russian source.
The 41st Army is a ground force stationed in Elnya, western Russia, near the border with Belarus last November. Major General Gerasimov took part in the second Chechen war, the Russian military operation in Syria and the annexation of Crimea, winning medals from those campaigns.
If his death is confirmed, Gerasimov will be the second Russian general in the 41st Army to die within a week of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
He was killed in late February Andrei Sukhovetsky, also deputy commander of the 41st Army. He was shot by a sniper during the Russian offensive against the Ukrainian defense.
The loss of high-ranking officers comes at a time when many of Vladimir Putin’s invading forces are mired in logistical problems and are facing fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Russian military planes bombed cities in eastern and central Ukraine last night, the Associated Press reported, citing Ukrainian officials. Suburbs of the capital Kyiv were also shelled, BTA reports.
In the cities of Sumy and Okhtorka, east of Kyiv, near the border with Russia, bombs fell on residential buildings and caused extensive damage to the power plant, said Sumy Oblast Chief of Staff Dmitry Zhivitsky. Some were killed, but the Ukrainian representative did not give specific figures.
Bombs also damaged oil depots in Zhytomyr and Chernikov, west of Kyiv. In Bucha, a suburb of the capital, local mayor Anatol Fedoruk said there was heavy artillery fire. “We can’t even pick up the bodies because the shelling doesn’t stop day or night,” he said.
The Ukrainian government wants humanitarian corridors to be opened so that people can leave Sumy, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Mariupol and the suburbs of Kyiv, including Bucha.
Russia has agreed to impose a ceasefire in several Ukrainian cities from 7 am GMT (9 am Bulgarian time) to allow the evacuation of civilians.
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