Ukrainian sniper sends top Russian general home in a body bag

The morale of Russia’s invading forces received yet another catastrophic blow on Wednesday after one of the Kremlin’s top generals was killed in battle during Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Although Moscow has yet to confirm the kill, Sergey Chipilyov of the Airborne Forces Union of Russian Paratroopers, announced that Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky was killed by Ukranian forces on the seventh day of Russia’s invasion of its southern neighbor, the Daily Mail reported.

This is huge loss of Russian forces in Ukraine. Deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army Andrey Sukhovetsky. Former commander of the Novorossiysk guards mountain air assault division of the Russian Airborne Troops. Fought in Abkhazia, Chechnya, Syria. General Major. pic.twitter.com/ikvbNWpKLW

— Mark Krutov (@kromark) March 3, 2022

“With great pain, we learned the tragic news of the death of our friend, Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky, on the territory of Ukraine during the special operation. We express our deepest condolences to his family,” Chipilyov wrote on Facebook.

A military source further confirmed that Sukovetsky, the late deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Russian Ground Forces, was killed “by a sniper” and suggested he would be buried in Russia on Saturday.

Sukovetsky -- a highly-decorated 47-year-old veteran of Russia’s campaigns in Chechnya, Abkhazia and Syria – is the most senior Russian official to have died in Ukraine thus far and will surely inspire Ukrainian forces as they continue to hold off the Kremlin’s invading forces.

Although Moscow has admitted that 498 of its troops have been killed in battle, Ukrainian officials have claimed that the casualty count might actually be as high as 9,000 – although admittedly the calculation of the actual figure “is complicated by the high intensity of hostilities.”

Yet despite Ukraine’s fierce resistance, Russian forces took the southern city of Kherson late Wednesday and Mayor Igor Kolykhaiev detailed a series of new regulations for citizens after Russian “armed visitors” stormed the city council.

“The military will not be provoked. Stop at the first demand,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Kerson is the first regional capital to have been captured by Russia’s invading forces after 8 days of heavy fighting and unexpectedly high Russian casualties and logistical disasters.

Although other major Ukrainian cities – including Kyiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol and Kharkiv – have come under heavy Russian bombardment, they have, thus far, held out.

Early on Thursday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed his people in a video address and promised the country would pull through if they continued to resist – adding that “all lines of defense are holding” and that the country would be rebuilt with money from Moscow.

"They wanted to destroy us so many times. They couldn't. We've been through so much! And if someone thinks that, having overcome all this, Ukrainians will be frightened, broken or surrender — he knows nothing about Ukraine, and he has nothing to do in Ukraine," he said in a video message according to CBS News.