Ukraine war: US says Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov visited Donbas front where Kyiv claimed deadly attack
- Ukraine reports deaths in attack on Russian command centre in Izium, where Moscow’s top general visited
- US said it could not confirm media reports Russian military’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov was injured
Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, visited the Donbas front in the Ukraine war last week, a Pentagon official said, but reports that he was injured in a Ukrainian attack could not be confirmed.
“What we can confirm is that we know that for several days last week he was in the Donbas,” a senior US defence official told journalists on Monday.
“We don’t believe that he’s still there – that he has left and he’s back in Russia,” the official said.
“We cannot confirm reports that he was injured.”
According to reports citing Ukraine officials, on Saturday Ukraine forces shelled a command centre in Izium, where Gerasimov, chief of general staff of the Russian armed forces, visited to meet with top field commanders.
But he had apparently left the site before the shelling took place.
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Several people were killed in the Ukrainian attack, according to information released by the government officials in Kyiv. The victims included senior officers, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, reported on Telegram.
Russia’s Defence Ministry has not commented on Gerasimov’s reported visit.
Gerasimov was believed to be touring the front to better understand field conditions and rally his troops as Russian forces, after failing to capture Kyiv in the north, attempt to take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the east.
In a daily briefing on the war, the Pentagon official said Monday that Russian forces were making minimal progress in a tough fight against Ukraine troops in the region and called their efforts “anaemic”.
“We continue to see minimal at best progress by the Russians in the Donbas. They’ve had some minor gains east of Izium and Popasna in the Luhansk Oblast.”
The officials described the Russians as winning control of villages, then ceding them back to Ukraine fighters, and characterised Russian forces as demoralised and suffering from poor leadership and organisation.
The Russian effort on the ground is “very tepid, very uneven … and in some cases, quite frankly, the best word to describe it would be anaemic,” the official said.
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Ukrainian forces optimistic they can hold off Russian advance in Donbas region
The official did not provide any similar assessment of Ukraine forces.
In a Saturday night video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said some 23,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine since the conflict began just over two months ago.
The Ukrainian leader said that more than a thousand Russian tanks and almost 2,500 other military vehicles were also destroyed.
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It is unclear how many Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. Moscow has so far confirmed the death of more than a thousand Russian soldiers and has put the number of Ukrainian fighters killed at more than 23,000.
Top Russian military leaders who have reportedly been killed include Vladimir Petrovich Frolov, the deputy commander of the 8th Army; Vitaly Gerasimov, the first deputy commander of the 41st Army; and Sergei Sukharev, a top paratroop commander of the 331st Guards Parachute Assault Regiment.
For its part, the Defence Ministry in Moscow on Saturday said that more than 2,600 Ukrainian tanks and armoured vehicles, around 650 drones as well as 142 aircraft and 112 helicopters had been put out of action.
Meanwhile, arms deliveries from the United States and Western allies to Ukraine, including heavy artillery, radar systems, and attack drones, continue at a high pace, a US official said.
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Over the last 24 hours, two dozen flights carrying US arms landed near Ukraine, and another 11 were planned over the coming 24 hours, officials said.
In addition to that, 23 transport flights carrying arms and battlefield supplies from five other countries also landed in key delivery locations.
Agence France-Presse, dpa and Reuters
