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Ukrainian defense forces killed Russian Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky in a battle earlier this week, according to Ukrainian officials and Russian media.
The circumstances surrounding the 47-year-old’s death were not immediately clear, but Kremlin-backed Pravda said he was killed “during a special operation in Ukraine”.
According to the Russian state agency TASS, last year Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Sukhovetsky deputy commander of the 41st General Army of the Central Military District. He was also the commander of the 7th Airborne Division, served in Syria and received two praises for bravery from the Kremlin.
Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, Commander of the Guards Mountain Air Assault Division in Novorossiysk of the Russian Airborne Forces, participated in an exercise at the Opuk test site in Crimea, March 19, 2021 (Photo by Sergei Malgavko TASS via Getty Images)
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“The fact is that we killed him,” Vladimir Omelyan, a former Ukrainian infrastructure minister who joined police in Kyiv, told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
The United States could not immediately confirm his death, according to a senior defense official.
But numerous reports cite a publication on Russia’s social media platform VKontakte attributed to Sergei Chipilev, a member of a group of Russian military officers.
Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, Commander of the Guards Mountain Air Assault Division in Novorossiysk of the Russian Airborne Forces, participated in an exercise at the Opuk test site in Crimea, March 19, 2021 (Sergei Malgavko / TASS)
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“With great pain we learned the tragic news of the death of our friend Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky on the territory of Ukraine during the special operation,” he wrote, according to a translation published by the English-language Russian newspaper Pravda. .ru “We express our deepest condolences to his family.”
The Kremlin says its military presence in Ukraine is a “special operation” and not an invasion or war.
But Russian troops have been attacking targets across the country since entering from the north, east and south last week. Although Ukraine’s defense is superior in equipment and weapons, Western intelligence analysts say they appear to have put up stronger resistance than Putin expected.
“If it’s true, it’s big,” said Dan Hoffman, a former CIA officer and stationmaster, of Sukhovetsky’s death.
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This could strengthen the unwavering determination of the Ukrainian military and represent a tactical victory.
A huge Russian military convoy seems to have stopped outside of Kyiv for days, mired in logistical problems and the Ukrainian army. But Putin’s troops captured Kherson, a port city of nearly 300,000. They also shelled Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and bombed defense forces in Mariupol, another coastal center.
Russian troops also said they had taken over the area around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporozhye, near the riverside town of Enerhodar. Reports indicate that the facility is on fire.
A successful campaign in Ukraine’s southern coastal region could create a land bridge for Russian forces between the homeland and Crimea, which they have occupied since 2014. This would also cut Ukraine off from shipping.
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Russia said on Wednesday morning it had lost 498 troops. Ukrainian authorities say they number up to 9,000, but have not released data on their own victims.
Caxlin McFaul of Fox News, Jennifer Griffin, Sarah Rumf and the Associated Press contributed to this report.