Russian general personally known to Putin ‘killed in missile strike on mansion’
A Russian general in Ukraine personally known to Vladimir Putin has been killed by a UK-supplied Storm Shadow missile, it has been claimed.
Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, who was filmed thanking Putin for his “personal … close attention” during a speech at the Kremlin in 2021, allegedly died after being struck by a long-range Ukrainian missile strike in Berdyansk, a coastal city deep in Russian-occupied territory, southwest of Mariupol.
Tsokov was sanctioned by Britain in December 2022, among a group of a dozen top military officials who had been “implicated in attacks on Ukrainian cities”.
A Ukrainian advisor to the mayor of Mariupol, Piotr Andryushchenko, claimed just before 9am on Tuesday (july 11) that the Lieutenant General had been killed.
He said that the Dune Hotel, a luxury residence in Berdyansk, on the Sea of Azov, had been “liquidated” following a Ukrainian strike.
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He added that it was “known that the military leadership of the enemy lived there for a certain time”.
The Ukrainian Berdyansk City Military Administration (BCMA) later claimed that the “building was actually razed to the ground. Now they are dismantling the debris there. Many ambulances went in that direction.”
Military sources speaking to Cheka-OGPU, a prominent Russian commentator with access inside the Kremlin, “confirmed” the report a few minutes after the BCMA claim.
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The channel added that the target hit was the “reserve command post of the 58th Army in Berdyansk”, though they provided no mention of the Dune Hotel.
Pro-Russian commentator War Gonzo, with nearly 1.3 million followers on Telegram, subsequently said that the attack had been carried out by UK-supplied Storm Shadow long range missiles.
It is worth noting, however, that pro-Russian commentators often claim that Storm Shadows have been used in attacks, in part to imply the involvement of the UK in Ukraine’s fight against the “special military operation”.
Tsokov, a former commander of the 810th Marine Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet, according to War Gonzo, and a married father of two, was described as a “competent” military man who never shied away from the front lines.
A video shows the general addressing Putin at a ceremony in the Kremlin in 2021. He thanked Putin for his “personal…close attention” which enabled the Russian war machine to “master the most modern ammunition and military equipment”.
Anton Geraschenko, a Ukrainian government official, claimed that the general had already been “wounded” last September in Svatove, a city in the eastern Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine.
Little is known about the general but in 2010, the Novosibirsk Garrison Military Court convicted him in a case of fraud and abuse of power.
According to NGS, he was accused of deceiving 11 conscripts into contract service, embezzling £683 (80,000 rubles) from their allowance, and then transferred back to military service.
If Tsokov’s death is confirmed, it means Putin has lost up to a dozen generals.
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