Russian major general blown up on landmine on Ukraine front

A top Russian commander has reportedly died after being blown up by a landmine in Ukraine.

Russian Major General Vladimir Zavadsky's death was reported by Ukrainian military officer Colonel Anatoly Stefan. Stefan said in a post on his Telegram channel that Zavadsky, the deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed on November 28, but added that further clarification on the cause of his death was needed. It isn't clear where in Ukraine he was reportedly killed.

Newsweek couldn't immediately verify the report. Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry via email for comment. Moscow rarely confirms reports about the deaths of its top commanders.

Kyiv's strikes throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine have reportedly eliminated key figures among the Kremlin's top brass. Moscow has lost a large number of top generals and commanders in the conflict.

In June, the BBC Russian Service and independent Russian news outlet MediaZona both reported that in the first month of Ukraine's counteroffensive, between June 4 and July 7, one Russian general, two colonels and three lieutenant colonels were killed in action.

Estimates of military casualties in the conflict vary widely, with figures provided by Ukraine usually outstripping those given by its Western allies. Russia rarely releases figures on its troop losses, but when it does, its estimates are far lower than those of Ukraine.

Zavadsky graduated from the Moscow Combined Arms Command School, 1st Battalion, in 2000. Nine years later, he graduated from the General Military Academy of the Russian Armed Forces.

He later served in the Russian military as deputy commander of a training tank regiment, deputy head of a training centre, chief of staff of a motorized rifle brigade, commander of a motorized rifle brigade, and commander of a motorized rifle division.

Zavadsky was commander of the Kantemirovskaya Guards Tank Division, stationed in the Moscow region, from August 2018 to June 2021, and was deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps when he was reportedly killed.

Viktor Kovalenko, a former Ukrainian soldier and journalist, previously told Newsweek that for the Russian military, every loss of a top military officer creates a "temporary localized chaos" because their units "are not trained and even allowed to manoeuvre autonomously."