By Lucy Papachristou
(Reuters) -Deputy head of the Russian Navy Major General Mikhail Gudkov, who had led a brigade fighting against Ukraine, was killed in a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s southern Kursk region, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed on Thursday.
At least 10 other senior Russian commanders have been killed in action or assassinated by Kyiv since the start of Russia’s full-scale war in February 2022.
Below is a list of the commanders confirmed dead by Russia.
ANDREI SUKHOVETSKY
The first senior Russian commander confirmed killed after the war began, Sukhovetsky was shot by a sniper in the Kyiv region on February 28, 2022, according to Ukraine. Russia later confirmed his death.
Sukhovetsky, a deputy commander of the 41st army who was 47 when he died, had previously served in Syria, the North Caucasus and Abkhazia, a Russian-backed breakaway region of Georgia.
VLADIMIR FROLOV
A deputy commander of the 8th Guards Army, Frolov was killed by sniper fire in April 2022 at the Illich Steel and Iron Works during the Russian siege of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, a politician in Russian-controlled Donetsk confirmed.
Frolov, 55, also fought in Syria.
KANAMAT BOTASHEV
A major general who had commanded aviation forces, Botashev had retired from the army but returned in 2022 to fight in Ukraine. He died that May while on a combat flight mission over the eastern Luhansk region, Russia confirmed.
Botashev, 63, was stationed in Siberia at the start of his military career and later fought against extremist Islamist groups in Tajikistan, according to Russian patriotic military websites.
ROMAN KUTUZOV
A colonel who was posthumously promoted to lieutenant general, Kutuzov was killed in June 2022 during a battle in the Luhansk region. He was 53 when he died.
SERGEI GORYACHEV
A major general and chief of staff of the 35th army, Goryachev was killed in June 2023 in a missile strike in Zaporizhzhia during a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Aged 52 at the time of his death, the highly-decorated Goryachev had fought in the Second Chechen War, oversaw a Russian military base in Tajikistan and led Russian forces in Moldova’s breakaway pro-Moscow region of Transdniestria.
OLEG TSOKOV
A lieutenant general and deputy commander of Russia’s Southern Military District, Tsokov died aged 51 in a Ukrainian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia in July 2023.
Having served in both wars in Chechnya, Tsokov was quickly promoted through the military ranks but was later charged with fraud and abuse of power for pocketing money from the contract signing bonuses of soldiers under his command.
VLADIMIR ZAVADSKY
Russian and Ukrainian media reports offer conflicting narrative of how Zavadsky, a major general and deputy commander of the 14th army, died. Russian outlet Lenta.ru said he was killed in the Kharkiv region in November 2023 by a Russian landmine.
A Russian governor later said Zavadsky had died at age 45 “in the line of duty” in Ukraine, without elaborating.
PAVEL KLIMENKO
Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said the 47-year-old major general was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack at a checkpoint in the Donetsk region in November 2023.
The BBC’s Russian service reported, citing the relatives of victims, that Klimenko had overseen a “torture camp” of Russian soldiers in Donetsk, where servicemen were abused and had their salaries stolen. Reuters could not independently confirm that.
Russia confirmed Klimenko’s dead. He was buried in Sevastopol in Crimea.
IGOR KIRILLOV
A lieutenant general, Kirillov is one of the most prominent Russian commanders assassinated by Ukraine. He was killed at the age of 54 in a bomb blast outside his apartment building in Moscow in December 2024. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service confirmed it was behind the hit.
Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was accused by Ukraine of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops.
YAROSLAV MOSKALIK
Moskalik was the next senior commander to be killed in a targeted attack on Russian soil.
Moskalik, the 58-year-old deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, died after a car exploded in the town of Balashikha outside Moscow in April 2025.
Shortly after the attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service for the killing of top Russian military figures, but made no mention of the car bomb.
(Compiled by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Aidan Lewis)
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