Kiev kills one of Russia's highest-ranking military personnel

MoscowMajor General Mikhail Gudkov, deputy commander of the Russian Navy, died this Tuesday in a Ukrainian missile attack in the Kursk region, although the news did not emerge until two days later. He is one of the highest-ranking Russian officers killed since the start of the war. He was at a military base in that Russian territory, bordering Ukraine, and his position was allegedly revealed due to a security error.

Confirmation of his death came from the governor of Primorsky Krai, a region in the Russian Far East. Oleg Kokhemiako stated in an online message that Gudkov had died "while carrying out his duty as an officer alongside his soldiers" and that, despite his rank, "he continued to personally visit the sailors."

Gudkov, 41, had trained in Novosibirsk, where he was originally from, but had earned the rank of commander in the Far East. He had fought in Chechnya and Syria, and during the invasion of Ukraine he had led the 155th Brigade of the Russian Army. In March 2025, Vladimir Putin personally promoted him to deputy commander and announced this to him in an encounter with sailors on an Arctic submarine which will be remembered for the Russian president's proposal to remove Volodymyr Zelensky and establish a UN-supervised transitional government in his place.

Gudkov's area of responsibility included command of all naval infantry and all coastal missile and artillery forces. The Ukrainian military had accused him of war crimes while leading his brigade in the towns of Butxa, Irpin, and Hostomel during the first months of the invasion, while the Ukrainian Border Guard had also named his men as participants in executions of prisoners of war.

At least 10 senior Russian military officers have been killed in combat or assassinated since the conflict began. Another high-ranking Russian officer, Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, also died in a car explosion near his home. Shortly afterward, Zelensky praised the Ukrainian intelligence service without mentioning the car bomb.