Another Russian general killed in southern Ukraine, claims Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine

Ukraine claimed on Friday that its forces had killed another senior Russian military officer.

In a video statement, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy affirmed reports that a Russian lieutenant general was killed by Ukrainian soldiers at the Chornobaivka airport in the southern Kherson region.

"We can now say this for sure. Ukrainian troops killed Lt. Gen. Yakov Rezantsev, commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Southern Military District," said the official, Oleksiy Arestovych.

Only three of the 648 Russian soldiers who fought in the 200th Special Battalion Tactical Unit of the Russian army survived, Arestovych added.

"Of the 648 soldiers in the unit sent to Ukraine to participate in a 'special military operation,' 645 were killed and two of the remaining three soldiers were wounded."