A Russian Navy general was killed while on duty in Ukraine, the governor of Russia's southern Voronezh region said Monday, confirming earlier reports of the senior officer's death.
Major General Vladimir Zavadsky died at age 45 “while on combat duty in the special operation zone,” Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev wrote on the messaging app Telegram, adding that the general served as deputy commander of the Northern Fleet’s 14th Army Corps.
Gusev did not elaborate further on the circumstances of Zavadsky’s death.
But he did note that Zavadsky had until 2021 commanded a Russian tank unit, with which the Voronezh region has “long-standing good relations.”
Unconfirmed reports of Zavadsky’s death first appeared late last month in a closed online chat group for graduates of the military school he attended, according to the BBC’s Russian service.
According to the report, which cited an unidentified graduate’s online communications, Zavadsky was killed by a mine.
BBC Russia said conflicting reports indicated that Zavadsky was either killed in eastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region or southern Ukraine’s Kherson region.
He is at least the seventh Russian general to have been killed in Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade the neighboring country in February 2022, according to data collected by the BBC's Russian service and the independent news website Mediazona.
Russian military authorities have not commented on the reported deaths of their senior officers and have not updated the army’s death toll since September 2022.
