- Ukraine said it had killed Major General Vitaly Gerasimov in Kharkiv on Monday.
- The Defense Ministry released an intercepted audio recording of what it said were two FSB officers discussing the death.
- Ukraine is trying to negotiate a ceasefire with Russia.
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Ukrainian military intelligence said it had killed a high-ranking Russian general on Monday, marking the second high-ranking loss since the invasion began.
The first deputy commander of the 41st Army of Russia, Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, died in Kharkov, according to an intelligence report from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
Hristo Grozev, Executive Director of open source investigative agency Bellingcat, wrote on Monday that a Russian source confirmed Gerasimov’s death. No details were given about the death, and neither Russian officials nor state media confirmed the death.
Along with this statement, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry released an audio recording of an intercepted telephone conversation between two Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers discussing the death and criticizing Russia’s secure military communications platform.
According to Grozev, Ukrainian intelligence was able to intercept the call because the FSB officer was using a phone with a regular SIM card because their secure communication system was not working.
“Can you connect to a secure channel?” one of the officers can be heard asking: to which the other replied: “The security does not work here, we can’t get anyone.”
Grozev said Bellingcat identified the older of the two FSB officers as Dmitry Shevchenko. According to Grozev, Shevchenko swore when he learned about Gerasimov’s death over the phone.
Gerasimov, who has been awarded medals for his service in Syria, Crimea and Chechnya, met personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 27 to discuss the offensive against Ukraine, the state-run TASS news agency reported at the time.
The report of Gerasimov’s death follows that of another deputy commander of Russia’s 41st Army, Andrei Sukhovetsky, who was killed late last month, according to Russian media reports.
The deaths come as Russia appears to be trying to achieve its goals in Ukraine after acrimonious Ukrainian resistance.
Russian forces subject Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, to heavy artillery fire and continue their advance on the capital Kyiv.
Ukraine was simultaneously trying to secure a ceasefire from Russia so that it could create safe escape routes for civilians to flee the country.
Russia has offered several evacuation corridors, but Ukraine has accused it of firing on civilians trying to escape.
In a video message on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian troops attacking his country were “tired” and “demoralized.”
“We never wanted this war, but it was brought to us,” Zelensky said. “We never dreamed of killing, but we must drive the enemy out of our land and out of our lives.”