The deputy commander of Russia’s Navy, Major General Mikhail Gudkov, was killed in a Ukrainian attack in the Kursk region, according to Russian authorities on Thursday.

Oleg Kozhemyako, the Governor of the Primorye region, was the first to announce Gudkov’s death in a post on Telegram, where he extended his sympathies to Gudkov’s family and the families of “other soldiers who lost their lives in the Kursk region.” He did not disclose specifics regarding how they died.

Media reports, which remain unconfirmed, suggested that Gudkov and ten other high-ranking military officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on their command post close to the town of Korenevo, located approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Ukrainian Sumy region border.

Later, the Russian military broadcaster Zvezda, referencing the Defense Ministry, conveyed that the general died on Wednesday “while on combat duty in one of the border areas of the Kursk region.”

Prior to his promotion to deputy Navy chief in March, Gudkov led the 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet, which is stationed in the Far East Primorye region.

According to a tally by the BBC’s Russian service and the exiled news outlet Mediazona, Gudkov is the eleventh Russian general to have died in the conflict since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

President Vladimir Putin notified Gudkov of his promotion during a televised meeting with a nuclear submarine crew.

Putin has frequently commended the 155th brigade, including during his year-end press conference in December. In October, he acknowledged the unit for successfully fending off a Ukrainian cross-border attack into the Kursk region the previous August.