Russian border region<\/a> that saw a successful Ukrainian incursion last year.\n <\/p>\n\n He is one of Russia\u2019s highest-ranking officers to have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kozhemyako previously handed Gudkov awards for bravery and said the two had spoken a lot over the years in a statement announcing the death.\n <\/p>\n
\n He described Gudkov as a \u201cstrong-willed warrior\u201d who had \u201cdied while performing his duty as an officer together with his fellow soldiers.\u201d Kozhemyako did not provide any further details on the circumstances of Gudkov\u2019s death.\n <\/p>\n
\n Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defense confirmed Gudkov\u2019s death on Thursday, saying he was killed in combat in the Kursk region. There has been no immediate comment from Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n
\n Gudkov was appointed as the deputy chief of the Russian Navy for coastal and ground forces by President Vladimir Putin in March.\n <\/p>\n
\n Putin said at the time: \u201cSince the minister and the Chief of the General Staff believe that your experience needs to be replicated in other units, I have decided to transfer you to a position – to increase your level of responsibility.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The Ukrainian military had previously accused Gudkov and other members of his former 155th brigade of committing war crimes in Ukraine, including the killing of civilians in the towns of Bucha, Irpin and Gostomel in the early months of Russia\u2019s war.\n <\/p>\n
\n Separately, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has said the 155th brigade was involved in executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war.\n <\/p>\n
\n Russia has consistently denied committing war crimes in Ukraine, despite evidence gathered by the Ukrainians and international investigators.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The deputy chief of the Russian Navy has been killed by Ukraine in Russia\u2019s Kursk region,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-234796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114789510255281904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}