A Russian general reportedly killed in Ukraine last week was buried with military honors in St. Petersburg, local media reported late Tuesday, publishing photos of a military funeral ceremony and gravesite.
Major General Sergei Goryachev’s funeral was said to have taken place on Sunday, reported the local Fontaka news outlet, noting a ceremony was held at the Defense Ministry Officers’ House in the city center.
Photos published by the outlet showed the general’s grave at Smolensky Cemetery, where a tombstone shows his date of death as June 12, 2023.
Last week, British intelligence said Goryachev was “almost certainly” killed in a strike on a command post in southern Ukraine, which would make him “the first Russian general confirmed killed in Ukraine since the start of 2023.”
The Kremlin last week redirected journalists’ questions about Goryachev’s reported death to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian military officials have not yet commented on the reports.
Russian war correspondent Yury Kotenok first reported the general’s death on June 12.
“The joint military force believes the army has lost one of the brightest and most effective military leaders who combined the highest professionalism and personal courage today,” Kotenok wrote in the since-deleted social media post.
Goryachev is believed to have been killed by a rocket attack in the so-called “Vremivka ledge” in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which Russia partially occupies.
If confirmed, Goryachev would be the fifth publicly known major general to have been killed in the nearly 16 months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to estimates by the BBC and independent news outlet Mediazona.
Western intelligence has placed the overall death toll of Russian generals at more than 20 as of February 2023.
