Intelligence: Senior Russian officer killed in Belgorod Oblast

Martin Fornusek
·1 min read

A senior Russian officer was killed in Belgorod Oblast on the night of June 5, Ukraine's military intelligence reported.

The 52-year-old Colonel Andrei Vasilyevich Stesyev, a senior officer in the Operational Group "Belgorod," was killed in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka near Russo-Ukrainian borders.

According to the Free Russia Legion, an anti-Kremlin armed group that claims to fight on Ukraine’s side, Stesyev was killed in an engagement with the militias.

The Legion has reportedly engaged with Moscow's troops in Novaya Tavolzhanka during the past few days, fighting beside another anti-Kremlin militia, the Russian Volunteer Corps.

Ukraine's military intelligence identified the officer as a former commander of the 104th Guards Air Assault Regiment, which has been accused of taking part in the March 2022 Bucha massacre.

Shmyhal: Bucha could be a trial site for ‘Russian war criminals’
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on April 1 that the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, which endured a brutal weeks-long Russian occupation in spring last year, should be considered a trial site for “Russian war criminals.”
The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

On June 4, the Russian Volunteer Corps announced yet another incursion in Belgorod Oblast. Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported ongoing fighting in Novaya Tavolzhanka the same day.