Major General Mikhail Gudkov, deputy head of the Russian Navy and a former commander of a marine brigade fighting against Ukraine, has been killed in action, depriving Moscow of one of its most senior officers, the Russian military said on Thursday.
Gudkov, who was handed a top military honour in the Kremlin by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February, was killed on Wednesday “during combat work in one of the border districts of Kursk region,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Unofficial Russian and Ukrainian military Telegram channels had earlier reported that Gudkov had been killed, along with other servicemen and officers, in a Ukrainian missile attack on a command post in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, with a US-made HIMARS missile.
Reuters could not independently verify how Gudkov, 42, lost his life.
In charge of the navy’s coastal and land forces, including marine units, he is one of the most senior Russian military officers to have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022.