The key facts

  • According to RIA Novosti, citing a source in Russian security structures, three officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other Ukrainian units were eliminated
  • The names, ranks and units of the killed, as well as the locations and methods of the strikes, were named
  • The reports come from one side of the conflict and are not confirmed by the Ukrainian side in the cited publications

What was reported about the three officers

RIA Novosti, citing a source in Russian security structures, reported the elimination of three officers of Ukrainian security agencies, and Gazeta.Ru republished the report. According to this information, Lieutenant Vitaly Vladimirovich Bogatyr, a serviceman of the 1st Border Detachment of the State Border Service of Ukraine, was killed in Prikolotnoye, Kharkiv region. In the area of the village of Berezka, Sumy region, Lieutenant Andrey Babik, deputy company commander of the 104th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade, was destroyed by a drone strike. Junior Lieutenant Oleg Gizhitsky, platoon commander of the 14th Brigade of the National Guard, according to the same source, was killed in a FAB strike along with his personnel.

Context of previous reports

Gazeta.Ru also recalls previously published reports: at the end of September, Russian forces, according to the outlet, eliminated Arsen Skakalsky, commander of the engineering company of the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in a drone strike on a military facility in Kyiv, and before that Russia reported the elimination of a colonel of Ukrainian military intelligence. All of the listed information comes from the Russian side and, in the cited publications, is not accompanied by confirmation or comment from the Ukrainian side, so it should be treated as a source's claim rather than an established fact.