A number of Russian general officers^[a] have been killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 28 November 2023, Ukrainian sources claimed that 16 Russian generals and 1 admiral had been killed during the invasion, while Russian sources have confirmed 7 deaths. Although seven of the Ukrainian claims were rebutted, the loss of even two general officers is rare. The scale of these losses is unprecedented since the Second Chechen War, in which Russia lost ten generals.^[1][2][3] This has been attributed to Russian senior commanders going to the field to address "difficulties in command and control" and "faltering Russian performance on the front line",^[4] insecure communication by Russian forces,^[5] and United States military intelligence that allowed the Ukrainians to target Russian officers.^[6]

List

Russia has confirmed the death of seven generals. Ukraine has claimed the deaths of five additional generals and one admiral, two of whom have not been named, which Russia has neither confirmed nor denied.

Image	Name	Rank	Position	Date reported	Status	Notes
	Andrei Sukhovetsky	Major General[b]	Deputy Commander, 41st Combined Arms Army	1 March 2022[8]	Confirmed	Shot by a sniper at Hostomel, Kyiv Oblast,[9][10] on 28 February 2022.[11][12] Had previously been involved in the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, and the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.[13] His death was reported by a retired Russian intelligence officer on Twitter on 1 March[8] and by Russian online tabloid Pravda.ru on 3 March 2022.[14]
	Vladimir Frolov	Major General	Deputy Commander, 8th Guards Combined Arms Army	16 April 2022[15]	Confirmed	No information about his death was released prior to the notice of his funeral at Serafimovskoe Cemetery, St. Petersburg.[16][17][18]
	Andrei Simonov	Major General	Chief of Electronic Warfare Troops, 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army	30 April 2022[19]	Claimed	Killed in an artillery strike on a command post of the 2nd Combined Arms Army, in the vicinity of Russian-controlled Izium, Kharkiv Oblast.[19]
	Kanamat Botashev	Major General (retired)	Wagner Group (possibly)	22 May 2022[20]	Confirmed	Killed in Luhansk Oblast when his Su-25 was shot down by a FIM-92 Stinger missile.[21] He had previously been discharged from the Russian Air Force for crashing a Su-27.[22] Ukrainian sources suggested that he might have been deployed as part of the paramilitary organization Wagner Group.[23]
	Roman Kutuzov	Lieutenant General (posthumous)	Commander, 1st Army Corps, Donetsk People's Republic People's Militia[24]	5 June 2022[25]	Confirmed	Reported by Russian state television reporter Alexander Sladkov on the Telegram messaging app.[25] Kutuzov was reportedly killed near the village of Mykolaivka, Popasna Raion, Luhansk Oblast.[26][25] Kutuzov's promotion from major general was announced posthumously.[27][28]
	Sergey Goryachev	Major General	Chief of Staff, 35th Combined Arms Army	12 June 2023[29]	Confirmed	Killed in a missile strike in Zaporizhzhia Oblast during the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive.
	Oleg Tsokov	Lieutenant General	Deputy Commander, Southern Military District	11 July 2023[30]	Confirmed	Killed by a missile strike on the headquarters of the 58th Combined Arms Army in Russian-controlled Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
	Vladimir Zavadsky	Major General	Deputy Commander, 14th Army Corps	28 November 2023[31][32]	Confirmed	Killed by a Russian mine away from the frontlines,[31][33][34] possibly in Kherson Oblast.[35]
	Alexander Tatarenko	Lieutenant General	Commander of Belbek air base	31 January 2024	Claimed	Killed during a SCALP/Storm Shadow strike on Belbek air base in Crimea, in the context of a larger Ukrainian missile and drone attack on 30–31 January that killed another ten servicemen. The Kyiv Post cites reports in Russian media for the claim.[36]

On 23 April 2022, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence claimed a strike on a Russian 49th Combined Arms Army command post in Russian-controlled Kherson Oblast killed two generals and critically injured one. The names of the two generals were not released at the time of the report.^[37][38]

Rebutted reports

The reported deaths of four Russian generals and one admiral have been rebutted, and two more retracted.

Image	Name	Rank	Position	Date reported	Initial report	Correction
	Magomed Tushayev	Major General	Commander, Chechen National Guard units	26 February 2022[39]	Claimed killed during an SBU Alpha Group ambush of a convoy around Hostomel, northwest of Kyiv.[40]	Death disputed by the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who posted a video said to show Tushayev alive,[41][42] and a Chechen-based media outlet that posted a video of Tushayev denying his death on 16 March 2022.[43] BBC News Russian later reported he was still alive.[44]
	Vitaly Gerasimov	Major General	Chief of Staff, 41st Combined Arms Army	8 March 2022[45]	Claimed killed outside Kharkiv. Had previously been involved in the Second Chechen War, Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, and 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.[13] CNN said it had not independently verified his death and US officials had not confirmed it.[46]	On 23 May 2022, Russian media reported that Gerasimov was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky, while dismissing claims of his death.[47][48] BBC News Russian later reported he was still alive.[44]
	Andrei Kolesnikov	Major General	Commander, 29th Combined Arms Army	11 March 2022[49]	Claimed killed somewhere near Mariupol.[49] However, the Ukrainian claim was not verified by Western media and Russian sources did not confirm his death.[50]	On 14 March 2023, Kolesnikov appeared in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov on Russian TV, reportedly during the latter's trip to Syria.[51]
	Oleg Mityaev	Major General	Commander, 150th Motor Rifle Division	15 March 2022	Claimed killed somewhere near Mariupol.[52]	Listed by Ukrainian government war criminals database as alive on 17 February 2023, transferred to another position.[53]
	Andrey Mordvichev	Lieutenant General	Commander, 8th Guards Combined Arms Army	18 March 2022[54]	Claimed killed in a Ukrainian artillery strike on Chornobaivka airfield in Kherson Raion, according to "preliminary information" from Ukraine.[55]	On 28 March 2022, footage appeared reportedly showing Kadyrov meeting with Mordvichev and other commanders in Mariupol.[56][57] BBC News Russian later reported he was still alive.[44]
	Yakov Rezantsev	Lieutenant General[a]	Commander, 49th Combined Arms Army	25 March 2022[58]	Ukrainian officials claimed he was killed as a result of a Ukrainian strike on the command post of the 49th Combined Arms Army at Chornobaivka airfield in Kherson Raion.[59][60]	Listed by Ukrainian government war criminals database as alive in February 2023, having been transferred to another position.[61]
	Viktor Sokolov	Admiral	Commander, Black Sea Fleet	22 September 2023[62]	Claimed killed in missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea.	Shown on 26 September 2023 attending a video conference with the Russian military leadership, reportedly the same day.[63] Subsequently, Ukraine said it was "clarifying" the reports of his death[64] and later that they had not confirmed it.[65] The next day, Sokolov appeared in an interview with Zvezda, reportedly commenting on the strike. Rossiyskaya Gazeta also reported that he led an award ceremony that morning.[66]

General-Major Artem Nasbulin, listed as Commander, 22nd Army Corps, was reported by Odesa Oblast representative Serhiy Bratchuk as killed, along with 3 officers and over 140 others, following a Ukrainian strike on a Russian command post in Tavriisk, Kherson Oblast, on 12 July 2022.^[67] However, The Moscow Times could not find any evidence supporting Nasbulin's existence.^[68]

Analysis

Analysts at the Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy and the French Institute of International Relations found that the number of Russian generals killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine suggests that poor morale among Russian forces and a slow advance into Ukraine forced high-ranking officers to put themselves at risk in an effort to achieve military objectives.^[49][69] UK intelligence attributed the deaths of senior commanders to their going to the field to personally lead operations to address "difficulties in command and control" and "faltering Russian performance on the front line."^[4] Western governments say at least ten Russian generals have been killed, which they attribute to major strategic errors.^[70] The Japanese government estimates that 20 Russian generals have been killed in the war, based on intelligence gathered by Japan in cooperation with the United States and Europe; retired general Kiyofumi Iwata [jp], former chief of staff of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, described the tally as "unbelievably high".^[71]

In addition to these flag officers, many other senior officers have been killed by Ukrainian forces; on 23 March, Ukrainian official Mykhailo Podoliak stated that their forces had killed "dozens of colonels and other officers".^[72][73] That day, The Times counted five Russian colonels killed in Ukraine so far.^[74] On 11 May, The Independent reported a total of 42 colonels allegedly killed.^[75] By the end of April, at least 317 Russian officers had been killed, a third of them majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels.^[76] A Ukrainian official told The Wall Street Journal that a unit of Ukrainian military intelligence was collecting information on the positions of Russian officers, including generals, artillery commanders, and pilots.^[13][7] High-ranking casualties in the Russian Navy include Captain 1st Rank Andrei Paliy, deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet.^[77][78] Anton Kurpin, the commander of the Russian cruiser Moskva, has also been reported as killed, although Russia has not confirmed this.^[79]

The Russian military is top-heavy, with generals playing a larger role in day-to-day operations than in other militaries.^[7][80] Russian battalion commanders were given more authority only three years before the invasion.^[13] According to analysts and Western officials, Russia had deployed approximately 20 general officers to Ukraine.^[13][81] Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, described the number of Russian generals killed as "a shocking number",^[81] while General David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA and commander of Coalition troops in Iraq, remarked that it is "very uncommon" for so many generals to be killed and that the Ukrainian military was "picking them off left and right".^[82] The Washington Post stated that generals were "killed at a rate not seen since World War II".^[3]

The deaths of Russian officers on the front line have been attributed to a number of Russian vulnerabilities in Ukraine, including the use of unsecured communications and the movement of officers to the front line to boost flagging morale and address discipline issues, such as looting.^{[13][81][80][3]} The use of unsecured phones has been attributed to the failure of Russia's secure telephone technology system, Era.^[5] In March 2022, two American military officials told The New York Times that Russian generals in Ukraine frequently had conversations on unsecured phones and radios, and that in at least one instance, a general and his staff were killed after the Ukrainians intercepted a call, geolocated it, and attacked the location.^[81] The New York Times also reported that U.S. intelligence has provided real-time intelligence to help the Ukrainian military target Russian generals.^[83]