A Russian general has been killed by Ukrainian forces near the city of Kharkiv, the second Russian senior commander to die in an invasion of Vladimir Putin's country.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement that Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, 45, was killed on Monday.
Gerasimov was Russia's first deputy commander of the 41st Army, and his death is another major blow to Putin's army.
The general took part in the Second Chechen War, the Russian military campaign in Syria and the annexation of Crimea, winning medals from those campaigns.
Kristo Grozev, executive director of investigative journalism group Bellingcat, said on Twitter that news of Gerasimov's death was intercepted by Ukrainian authorities as it was passed on to Russian military officers.
Sharing a photo of the conversation in Russian, Grozev wrote that the region's 41st Army had lost communication, and thus had to use a local SIM card – which allowed Ukraine to intercept the call. .
According to reports, Gerasimov was the son of Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia.
On February 27, Valery Gerasimov was pictured meeting Putin – sitting at the end of a long table with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Vitaly Gerasimov's death will come as a blow to the Kremlin, and is another sign that Putin's invasion is not going as planned.
His death comes after Russian media said last week that another military leader had been killed: Major General Andrei Sukhovtsky, 47, deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Forces of the Central Military District.
According to Pravda.ru, Sukhovtsky died during a special operation in Ukraine, his comrade-in-arms Sergei Chipilev wrote on social media.
Reports say that Sukhovatsky was shot and killed by a sniper near Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian forces.
The death of Sukhovtsky, who also took part in Russia's military operation in Syria, is also a big blow to the Russian army.
The 41st Combined Arms Forces of Russia is a territorial force of the Russian Ground Forces, and is currently a part of the Central Military District.
It is understood that key elements of the 41st have been stationed in Ukraine to reinforce the western and southern military districts fighting in Ukraine.
Russia's defense ministry could not be immediately reached for comment. Reuters could not confirm the report.
According to a Ukrainian general, three other Russian commanders have also been killed in fighting in Ukraine in recent days. He died as Ukrainian forces fought to retake Chuhuiv from Russian control.
"During the hostilities, the city of Chuhuyev was liberated," Lieutenant General Serhi Shaptla of Ukraine said in a post on Facebook. 'The occupants suffered heavy losses in personnel and equipment.'
He continued: 'The commander of the 61st Separate Marine Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Safronov, and the deputy commander of the 11th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Denis Glebov, were killed.'
Reports say that Russian commander Konstantin Zhizhevsky was also killed in recent fighting.
Another who died – in Russia's attempt to take Kharkiv – was 27-year-old Igor Vasilenko, who was killed in Ukrainian army fire.
Commander of a Russian reconnaissance detachment, he 'did not hide behind the backs of the troops assigned to him, but went first himself', a report said.
His widow Valeria Vasilenko posted a picture of herself with her young son, saying that her husband would 'never allow me to post anything but that's it.
'You have seen everything, you know everything, I beg you not to invent anything. my heroes. Thank you for your life.'
Russia's offensive in Ukraine continued, but at a much slower pace, on Tuesday as fearful residents fled the bombed cities.
In the city of Irpin, on the northwestern edge of Kyiv, residents ran with their young children in strollers, or carrying babies, while others carried pet carriers and plastic bags and suitcases.
'It's like a disaster, the city is almost ruined, and the district I live in seems to have no houses that weren't bombed,' said a young mother, holding a child. Under the blanket, while his daughter stood by his side.
'Yesterday was the hardest bombing, and the lights and sounds are so scary, and the whole building is shaking.'
Russia's invasion, the biggest attack on a European state since World War II, has generated 1.7 million refugees, a raft of sanctions on Moscow, and fears of widespread conflict as the West pours military aid into Ukraine.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a 'special operation', which it says was designed not to capture the region but to destroy the military capabilities of its southern neighbor and capture what they perceived as dangerous nationalists. has gone.
Despite this, countless civilian locations were bombed, resulting in hundreds of deaths, including children.
Kyiv has rejected Moscow's offer of possible humanitarian corridors to Russia and Belarus.
However, Moscow has proposed on Tuesday giving residents of the cities of Sumy and Mariupol the option of moving elsewhere in Ukraine, setting a deadline in the early hours for Kyiv to agree, Russian news agencies reported.
After a third attempt to reduce the bloodshed in the negotiations in Belarus, negotiators warned not to expect the next round to bring a final result. The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine are expected to meet in Turkey on Thursday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that if Ukraine stopped fighting, Moscow would halt the operation, amend its constitution to declare neutrality, and Russia's annexation of Crimea and the independence of territories held by Russian-backed separatists. recognized.
The demands are seen as unacceptable in Ukraine.