The commander of an elite Russian marine unit was reportedly killed in a Ukrainian missile strike that also claimed the life of Russia’s deputy navy chief, the independent Telegram news channel Astra reported Friday, citing a now-deleted post by officials in the officer’s hometown.
Colonel Sergei Ilyin led the Pacific Fleet’s 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade and died “during the special military operation” in Ukraine, according to a post attributed to the Urmarsky district administration in the republic of Chuvashia.
The post did not specify the date of Ilyin’s death, but Astra shared a photo of a billboard at his apparent funeral showing his birth and death dates as Nov. 26, 1985, and July 2, 2025.
That same day, reports emerged that 11 senior Russian military officers, including Navy Deputy Commander Mikhail Gudkov, were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in the southwestern Kursk region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed Major General Gudkov’s death “during combat duty” on July 2 but did not provide a cause or mention the other reported casualties.
Ilyin had succeeded Gudkov as commander of the 155th brigade after President Vladimir Putin promoted Gudkov in March.
Putin has regularly praised the 155th brigade, including at his year-end press conference in December. In October, he credited the unit with repelling a Ukrainian cross-border incursion into the Kursk region in August.
The Urmarsky district’s posts about Ilyin’s death were later deleted from Telegram and the social media network VKontakte for unknown reasons, according to Astra.
Pro-war bloggers claimed Ilyin was killed in the same missile strike on a command post near the town of Korenevo that allegedly killed Gudkov. The Moscow Times was unable to independently verify those claims.
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