Ninth Russian general ‘killed in Ukraine’: Kyiv claims to have eliminated another senior officer as Putin seeks to conquer the east
- Major General Andrey Simonov killed, Ukrainian army sources tell Zelenskyi’s adviser
- Simonov would be the ninth and youngest Russian general to be killed during the invasion
- The strike near the city of Izyum in the northeastern Kharkiv region also destroyed 30 vehicles
- On average, one Russian general is killed every week during Putin’s failed trip
A ninth Russian general was reportedly killed in a Ukrainian artillery attack near Kharkiv.
Major General Anton Simonov, 55, died during the attack on a Russian army command in northern Ukraine, President Zelenskyy’s adviser Alexey Arestovych said yesterday.
Mr Arestovych told YouTube livestream viewers he had been briefed by well-placed army sources.
Simonov would become the ninth and youngest Russian general to have been killed in Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine.
He was considered the leading specialist in electronic warfare in the Russian military.
Major General Andrey Simonov (picture date unknown) was an electronic warfare commander
April 29 Ukrainian artillery attack on a Russian command post in Izyum, Kharkiv region
Simonov died in a devastating Ukrainian backlash against a Russian offensive.
Simonov led electronic warfare within the 2nd Combined Arms Army and is a former Western Military District cyber commander.
Footage of the attack on the Izyum command post on April 29 was shared again after it was revealed that Simonov may have been killed.
The Ukrainian army said it destroyed 30 Russian vehicles during the artillery attack.
Simonov’s alleged murder adds to the 36 colonels and more than 300 Russian officers who have died in Ukraine so far.
Simonov, 55, poses in his military uniform in this undated picture of the electronics expert
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry this morning claimed it had killed 23,500 Russian soldiers, destroyed 1,026 tanks and destroyed nearly 200 planes since the war began.
The Daily Mail’s foreign columnist Ian Birrell tweeted: “Russia is losing an average of one general a week in Putin’s disastrous war, which must be an almost unprecedented attrition rate for such senior officers.”
But Zinonov’s death alongside 100 Russian soldiers – and the reported loss of armored vehicles – portends another setback for the Kremlin leader.
Putin wanted to announce the success of his mission on May 9, Victory Day in Russia, the anniversary of the end of World War II.
The major general from the Kirov region graduated from the Tomsk Higher Military Command School of Communications.
Just two weeks ago, the grave of the eighth Russian general who was killed, Vladimir Frolov, was seen in St. Petersburg.
Frolov “sacrificed his life so that children, women and the elderly in Donbass would not hear bombs exploding again,” the governor of St. Petersburg said at his friend’s funeral.
The general came from a military family and “died the brave’s death fighting Ukrainian nationalists,” added Alexander Beglov.
He was “a true patriot, a brave and courageous man” who “honestly and to the end fulfilled his military and human duty.
“People will not forget their heroes. Eternal memory of him.’
He became the 42nd senior officer known to have died in a war that bled Putin’s top leadership.
The magnitude of the death toll invalidates Vladimir Putin’s claim that his “military special operation” is going according to plan.
Russia’s other eight fallen generals
General Magomed Tushaev: leader of the Chechen special forces who led “purges against homosexuals”, was killed in an ambush near Hostomel on February 26
Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky: Deputy Commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District was killed by a sniper in a special operation on March 4
General Magomed Tushaev (right) was blown up by Ukraine in the early stages of the war after she joined the Russian invasion
Major General Vitaly Gerasimov: First Deputy Commander of Russia’s 41st Army, taking part in operations in Syria and Crimea, killed March 8 in battles around Kharkiv
Major General Andrei Kolesnikov: Commander of the Combined Army’s 29th Army, killed 11 March
Major General Vitaly Gerasimov (left) was the first deputy commander of Russia’s 41st Army and took part in operations in Syria and Crimea. He was killed in battles around Kharkiv on March 8
Major General Oleg Mityaev died in combat near the city of Mariupol on March 16
Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev, killed in the Kherson region on March 19
Lieutenant-General Yakov Rezantsev, commander of Russia’s 49th Combined Army, was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson on March 25
Major General Vladimir Frolov was deputy commander of the 8th Guards Army in eastern Ukraine. His grave in St. Petersburg was pictured two weeks ago
Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, commander of the 49th Combined Army of Russia. He was killed on March 25 during a strike near the southern city of Kherson
The grave of Major General Vladimir Frolov at the Serafimovskoe Cemetery in St. Petersburg. The circumstances of his death are still unclear