Top Russian general killed in missile attack on Ukraine hotel

A senior Russian general has been killed in a missile strike in Ukraine while another top Russian general fighting in Ukraine was fired from his post, reported BBC and CNN.

Lt Gen Oleg Tsokov is said to have died in a strike on a hotel housing Russian military commanders in Berdyansk, on Ukraine's occupied southern coast.

Russia's defence ministry has not officially confirmed his death. But it was widely announced by Russian war channels on the Telegram messaging app.

TV host Olga Skabeyeva said "absolutely all media" were reporting it.

Lt Gen Tsokov was deputy commander of Russia's southern military district. Ms Skabeyeva who presents a talk show on the state-run Rossiya-1 channel said he was killed by a UK-supplied Storm Shadow missile.

Andrei Gurulyov, an MP and retired general who appeared on her popular 60 Minutes show on Tuesday, said the general had returned to Ukraine despite being badly wounded earlier in the conflict.

He was hit last September while commanding Russia's 144th Motorized Infantry Division in the Svatove area of occupied eastern Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, he died heroically. This man deserves huge respect," the retired general said.

Several Russian war accounts on Telegram also reported his death, including blogger WarGonzo and Military Informant, a channel with more than half a million followers.

In the absence of official comment from Moscow, military bloggers have previously proven an insightful source of information on the Russian side.

The BBC has not independently verified the death, which was also highlighted by Ukrainian officials.

Reports said he was caught up in a Ukrainian attack that destroyed a hotel accommodating Russian military commanders in Berdyansk, a city in the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia on the coast of the Azov Sea.

Images and video from various parts of Berdyansk have circulated on social media, but none show the exact site of the blast.

BBC Verify has confirmed that one photograph shows a column of smoke rising from the area where the Dune Hotel is located.

Russian local social media chatter suggested the strike occurred 0400 local time on 11 July.

Some users said the hotel had been completely levelled, affirming earlier comments from the Berdyansk city military administration, currently operating from Ukraine-controlled territory.

Although there is no confirmation that a Storm Shadow cruise missile was used, the UK government said in May that it had donated an undisclosed number of the missile to Ukraine.

The Storm Shadow has a range of over 150 miles (240km) - triple that of the missiles Kyiv had previously been using, making it much easier to launch precision strikes.

Ukraine has claimed attacks on Russia's military commanders in Berdyansk before, however, there was initially some doubt that Lt Gen Tsokov was there.

Russia's defence ministry had given no official announcement that he had been promoted from his role as commander of the 144th Motorised Infantry Division in eastern Ukraine, to deputy commander of Russia's Southern Military District.

The military district has a far larger remit, including areas of southern Russia as well as occupied areas of Ukraine. The defence ministry has either been slow to detail changes in command or it has simply avoided announcing them altogether.

Russian general in Ukraine fired

Another senior Russian general in command of forces in occupied southern Ukraine says he was suddenly dismissed from his post after accusing Moscow’s Defence Ministry leadership of betraying his troops by not providing sufficient support.

General Ivan Popov was the commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, which has been engaged in heavy fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region. He is one of the most senior officers to have taken part in the bloody Russian campaign in Ukraine.

Popov said he had raised questions about “the lack of counter-battery combat, the absence of artillery reconnaissance stations and the mass deaths and injuries of our brothers from enemy artillery,” in a voice note published on Telegram late Wednesday.

The recording was posted on the messaging app by Andrey Gurulev, a member of the Russian Parliament and former deputy commander of the Southern Military District.

“I also raised a number of other problems and expressed it all at the highest level frankly and extremely harshly,” Popov said in the audio message. “I had no right to lie, therefore, I outlined all the problematic issues that exist today in the army in terms of combat work and support.”

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu “signed the order and got rid of me,” the general also said in the recording, as he accused the top Kremlin official of treason.

“As many commanders of divisional regiments said today, the servicemen of the armed forces of Ukraine could not break through our army from the front, (but) our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment,” Popov said.

The 58th Combined Arms Army has been headquartered in the occupied city of Berdyansk, and both Ukrainian and Russian sources have said its base there – at the Dune hotel – was hit by a missile attack early Tuesday that killed another Russian general.

Prominent Russian military blogger Voyenniy Osvedomitel said Tuesday that “as a result of a strike by British Storm Shadow cruise missiles on the 58th Army’s reserve command post near Berdyansk, the deputy commander of the Southern Military District, Lt Gen Oleg Tsokov, has been killed.”

Addressing troops of the 58th in his voice note, Popov said: “Good night, my beloved gladiators, beloved relatives, one family. I had to collect my thoughts, a lot of things happened in the last two days. “I am always available to you. It is an honour for me to stand with you in the same ranks.”

Popov also said he would “do everything in my power and even more so that it would be easier for you to fight so as many of our comrades as possible come back alive.”