Ukraine claims Russian general killed in massive strike

(A7)A Russian general was killed in a Ukrainian artillery strike over the weekend, a senior Ukrainian official claimed.

Oleksiy Arestovych, a spokesperson to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that roughly 100 Russian military personnel were killed in a massive artillery barrage on Saturday, according to a report by TheKyiv Post.

The Ukrainian artillery strike is said to have targeted a field command post serving Russia’s Second Army near the city of Izyum in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

The barraged struck more than 30 Russian armored vehicles, Arstovych claimed.

Among the dead, Arestovych said, was Maj. Gen. Andrei Simonov, commander of Russia’s electronic warfare units.

Simonov is the second Russian general reportedly killed in the last week of April, and the tenth reportedly killed since the Russian invasion began on February 24th.

Russia has yet to comment on the reports of Simonov’s death.

Last week, Arestovych admitted that Ukraine had suffered “serious losses” during its war with Russia, but claimed that Moscow’s have been “colossal”.

“We have serious losses but the Russians’ losses are much, much bigger…They have colossal losses,” Arestovych said.

NATO has estimated that anywhere between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war, with tens of thousands more wounded or captured.

Ukraine has claimed that 20,000 Russian soldiers have died in the war, while Moscow has yet to update its March 25th death toll, which claimed that 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed in the first month of fighting.