By Chris Muhizi for MCN Thursday.
According to reports, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov died in an attack on a hotel in Berdyansk, on the occupied southern coast of Ukraine, that was holding Russian military officers.
His passing has not been formally verified by Russia’s defense ministry. However, Russian war channels on the messaging service Telegram widely publicized it.
Olga Skabeyeva, a TV personality, claimed that “absolutely all media” were covering it.
The southern military district of Russia was under the command of Lieutenant General Tsokov. Ms. Skabeyeva, who hosts a discussion program on the government-run Rossiya-1 channel, claimed he was murdered by a Storm Shadow missile supplied by the UK.
The general had returned to Ukraine despite being severely wounded earlier in the battle, according to Andrei Gurulyov, an MP and retired general who made an appearance on her well-liked 60 Minutes show on Tuesday.
In the seized eastern Ukraine region of Svatove, where he was in charge of Russia’s 144th Motorized Infantry Division, he suffered an injury in September.
He tragically passed away in a brave manner. The general in retirement said, “This man deserves a great deal of respect.
His passing was also announced by a number of Russian war accounts on Telegram, such as the channel Military Informant and the blogger WarGonzo, who has more than 500,000 subscribers.
Military bloggers have historically shown to be a valuable source of information from the Russian side in the absence of official statement from Moscow.
Despite prior attacks on Russian military officers in Berdyansk being claimed by Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Tsokov’s presence was initially questioned.
He had been promoted from his position as commander of the 144th Motorized Infantry Division in eastern Ukraine to deputy commander of Russia’s Southern Military District, but the Russian defense ministry had made no public notice of the promotion.
The military district’s jurisdiction spans a far wider area, encompassing occupied territory in Ukraine and parts of southern Russia. Changes in command have either not been detailed by the defense ministry or have not been announced at all.
According to reports, he was involved in a Ukrainian assault that destroyed a hotel housing Russian military officers in Berdyansk, a city in the country’s southeast region of Zaporizhzhia.
Additional source: BBC