Major General Mikhail Gudkov, deputy head of the Russian Navy who was praised and promoted by President Vladimir Putin, has been killed in action, depriving Moscow of one of its most senior officers,

Maj. Gen. Mikhail Gudkov, promoted to deputy head of the Russian Navy just a few months earlier, died in an apparent Ukrainian strike.

The deputy head of the Russian navy, Mikhail Gudkov, has been killed in Russia’s Kursk region, the country’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed. He is one of the most senior Russian commanders to have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.