The Ukrainian counterattack reportedly claimed the life of a Russian general who has been described as one of the army’s “most effective military commanders”.
Major General Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, was killed Monday in a missile attack in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, according to pro-Kremlin war correspondent Yury Kotyunok. His death occurred on Russia Day, the country’s national holiday.
“The war takes the best,” Kotyonok wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. “Today the Army has lost one of its brightest and most effective military leaders, who combined the highest levels of professionalism and personal courage,” he said.
Vladimir Rogov, one of Russia’s acting commanders in the Zaporizhye region, also went to telegram mourning the loss of Goryachev, expressing his “deepest condolences” to the general’s family. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers wrote that Goryachev was killed in the Storm Shadow raid along with several other high-ranking Russian officers, although their deaths have not been confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Major General Sergey Goryachev
through Telegram
“It is usually colonels, lieutenants, and majors who provide activities at headquarters along with a general,” Ukrainian military expert Mykhailo Zerokhov told Current Time. “So, such an attack on the command post of the 35th Army before a major offensive is a very serious ticket to success.”
Goryachev appears to be the first Russian general to be killed this year, and the tenth to be killed during the war, according to independent Russian media.
The news comes as the Ukrainian military began releasing videos from reclaimed villages in the Donetsk region, including Makarivka and Blahodatne.
The enemy is doing everything to hold the positions they have captured. They actively use attack and army aviation, conducting massive artillery fire. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that in the offensive, our troops face continuous minefields associated with anti-tank trenches. The ministry said that seven more villages had been recaptured from Russia in the past week.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also announced advances near Bakhmut, Berdyansk and Toritsk, although Ukraine had not yet managed to break through Russia’s main front line.
