The deputy chief of the Russian navy was killed near the Ukrainian border, Russian troops confirmed.
Major General Mikhail Gudkov, appointed senior naval post by President Vladimir Putin in March, was killed when the Russian Ministry of Defense described it as “combat work” in the West Kursk region, adjacent to Ukraine’s Smie region. The ministry did not provide further details about the operation.
Last summer, Ukraine launched a surprising attack in Kursk. The army has been mostly evicted, but in June Kiev said it still holds a small area of the area.
Gudkov’s death is one of Moscow’s most famous losses since the beginning of a full-scale invasion in Ukraine.
Ten other people were also killed in the incident, according to Oleg Kozhemiako, governor of the Primorsky region in the far east of Russia.
Kozhemyako made a presentation on Telegram, where he described Gudkov as a loyal officer who had died “fulfilling his duties.”
Unconfirmed reports from Russian and Ukraine’s military-related telegram channels suggest that it is the result of Ukrainian missile strikes at the Russian commander post near the town of Korenevo, about 30 km (19 miles) from the border.
Ukraine has not officially commented on the attack – consistent with the usual policy of not confirming targeted strikes against Russian territory.
Gudkov previously commanded the 15th Navy Infantry Brigade of the Pacific Fleet, a unit involved in the fierce battles of eastern Ukraine and later involved in the fierce battles in the Kursk region itself.
Footage from Vladivostok, the Far Eastern city of Vladivorstok, home to Russia’s Pacific Fleet, showed flowers laying at a memorial to Gudkov, who won the Gold Star medal for Russian heroes in late 2023.
Ukraine has not acknowledged its involvement in Gudkov’s death.
However, sources within Ukrainian security services previously told media, including the BBC, that they were behind similar targeted strikes, including the killing of General Igor Kirillov in December 2024.
Earlier this year, General Jaroslav Moscarick was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow. At the time, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of “continuing involvement in terrorist activities within our country.”
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia’s Ukraine in 2022, there have been several high-level assassination plots on both sides.
Last year, Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) said it had blocked Russian conspiracy to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking Ukrainian officials.
At the start of the war, the Ukrainian leader said he was Russia’s “number one target.”
Meanwhile, officials from Odesa city in southern Ukraine said two people were killed and six others were injured in a missile strike at the port on Thursday.
Previously, a strike in the central city of Poltaba, which targeted the Army recruitment centre, killed two people and injured nearly 50 others, authorities said.
