Source: Ukrainian sniper reportedly kills highly decorated Russian general

A highly decorated Russian general was killed Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported, adding that a military source said a Ukrainian sniper did the job on Major Gen. Andrey Sukhovetsky.

What are the details?

Sukhovetsky was deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of Russia's Central Military District, the outlet said, adding that Russia's Ministry of Defense had not confirmed his death.

However, Sukhovetsky's colleague Sergey Chipilyov announced his death on social media, and several Russian and Ukrainian news outlets reported the general's demise, the Daily Mail said.

The post from Chipilyov — who's with the Airborne Forces Union of Russian Paratroopers — reads as follows, the outlet said: "With great pain, we received the tragic news about the death of our friend, Major-General Andrey Aleksandrovich Sukhovetsky, in Ukraine during a special operation. We express our deepest condolences to his family."

The Daily Mail said it wasn't clear where Sukhovetsky was killed. The military source also told the outlet a funeral will be held Saturday in Russia, the outlet said.

Sukhovetsky would be by far the most senior Russian figure to have have died since the invasion of Ukraine commenced last week, the Daily Mail said.

The 47-year-old was a highly decorated veteran who was appointed deputy army commander of the 41st division in October 2021, the outlet said, adding that he previously commanded the 7th Airborne Assault Division in Novorossiysk for three years, completed several combat deployments in the Chechen war, Abkhazia, and the intervention in Syria, and received special commendation for his participation in Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The Daily Mail said Sukhovetsky's death would be seen in Ukraine as another encouraging sign that the Russia's invasion isn't going well.

What else?

The Kremlin on Wednesday acknowledged that nearly 500 of its troops have been killed and another 1,600 have been injured in Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, the outlet said, adding that the real numbers are "almost certainly higher."

Ukraine's armed forces said Thursday that Russia's army had suffered 9,000 casualties, the Daily Mail added, although noting that the military's statement said the actual death toll "is complicated by the high intensity of hostilities."

A Ukrainian defense official also announced this week that a kill squad sent to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was "eliminated" by the country's armed forces.

What's more, some Russian troops in Ukraine reportedly are surrendering en masse and even sabotaging their own vehicles to get out of the conflict, a U.S. defense official said Tuesday.

Zelenskyy on Thursday lauded the fight his fellow citizens are waging against Russian's military and claimed "all lines of defense are holding" in the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Mykolaiv, the Daily Mail reported.

"They wanted to destroy us. They failed. We've been through so much. And if anyone thinks that, having overcome all this, Ukrainians will be frightened, broken, or surrender, they know nothing about Ukraine," Zelenskyy said, according to the outlet: "We will restore every house, every street, every city, and we say to Russia: learn the word 'reparations.' You will reimburse us for everything you did against our state, against every Ukrainian, in full."

He added, "We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy. They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment," the Daily News reported, and also said Russian soldiers "are not warriors of a superpower. These are confused children who have been used."