Ukrainian intelligence says a top Russian military officer has been killed in fighting near the city of Kharkiv and has released what it says are intercepted phone calls that appear to partly corroborate the death.
If confirmed, Major General Vitaly Gerasimov would be the second top general to have been killed in fighting in Ukraine in recent weeks.
In a statement on March 7, Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate said Gerasimov, a chief of staff and first deputy commander with Russia's 41st Combined Arms Army, had been killed along with several other senior officers.
The statement gave no details as to when or how he was killed.
There was also no independent confirmation of the death of Gerasimov, who was a decorated officer and veteran of the Second Chechen War in the early 2000s and, more recently, military operations in Syria and Crimea.
Moscow has given little public accounting of casualties among Russian troops since the new war erupted on February 24.
A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that "there were dead and wounded," but gave no other figures.
On March 2, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, citing the ministry, said 498 Russian soldiers had died and another 1,597 were wounded.
Ukraine, however, has claimed its forces have killed more than 11,000 Russian troops.
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Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate also released two audio recordings of what it said were two Russian intelligence officers discussing the state of the fighting.
In one, one of the officers laments the death of Gerasimov. Later, the two discuss the poor state of encrypted communications being used by Russian forces.
Another Russian officer, General Andrei Sukhovetsky, who was also a deputy commander with the 41st Army, was reported killed on February 28 during the fighting in Ukraine.
