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A deputy commander of the Russian navy who had previously led one of the military’s most notorious brigades has been killed near the frontline with Ukraine, Moscow has confirmed.
Maj Gen Mikhail Gudkov, who was responsible for Russia’s marine units, was said to have been killed on Tuesday in a Ukrainian missile attack on a field headquarters in Kursk region, amid reports the position had been revealed by poor security.
Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Primorsky Krai in Russia’s far east, said Gudkov had died “performing his duty as an officer alongside his fellow soldiers” and that despite his rank, he “continued to personally visit the positions of our marines”.
Gudkov had been personally promoted by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in March, having led the 155th marine brigade, a frontline unit repeatedly reconstituted because so many of its members had been killed.
A Russian Telegram channel, MiG 41, said that according to “unofficial information”, the base may have been revealed by a mole, or discovered by Ukrainian military intelligence after some marines called family and friends in Vladivostok as the eastern city began to celebrate its city day on Wednesday.
At least four missiles were said to have struck the base, a city publication reported, and a number of other senior officers were killed in the attack near the village of Korenevo in the Kursk region, about 19 miles (30km) from the front.
Originally considered an elite unit, members of the 155th brigade have been accused of war crimes by Kyiv during the course of the war, such as the execution of nine Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Kursk region last summer. A captured Russian marine said he had witnessed the killing of two other PoWs a month earlier in the same sector.
The Russian unit participated in the failed attempt to take Kyiv in spring 2022, and was then involved the repeated offensives at Vuhledar in 2023 in the south-east corner of the frontline, before being redeployed to fight off Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk province.
In Ukraine, three people were reported killed and 34 injured in Russian air attacks in different parts of the country on Thursday. Ukraine’s air force said 52 Shahed and dummy drones were launched by Moscow’s forces, with it successfully intercepting or jamming 40 of them.
Earlier this week, it emerged that the US had paused the delivery of Patriot air defence missile interceptors and other precision weapons to Ukraine amid concerns about the level of its stockpiles. Donald Trump said last month that Patriot missiles had been given to Israel to help it defend itself from Iran.
Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are expected to discuss the issue on Friday, the Financial Times reported. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that “one way or another, we must ensure protection for our people”.
