Copyright kyivpost
The Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) has released a video showing the killing of Lt. Vasily Marzoyev, a Russian officer and the son of a senior commander accused of war crimes in Ukraine. According to a report on Telegram, on Oct. 15, a combined UAV detachment from the HUR’s Department of Active Operations identified the position of Russian drone operators near Plavni, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Zaporizhzhia. “A guided aerial bomb successfully flew according to the coordinates obtained by the scouts – to neutralize the Russian killers,” the statement said. HUR reported that Marzoyev was at the position at the time of the strike. The agency added that the video contains “exclusive footage of the destruction of Vasily and other Russian invaders by the KAB [glide bomb].” Kyiv Post was unable to independently verify the time and location of the footage. As reported by Kyiv Post on Oct. 20, Russian officials have confirmed the death of Marzoyev. Sergei Menyaylo, the head of the Republic of North Ossetia, announced on Telegram that Marzoyev died “while carrying out a combat mission” in Ukraine. Marzoyev commanded a reconnaissance platoon of the 108th Airborne Regiment and had been involved in combat operations against Ukraine for an extended period. Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded him the title of “Hero of Russia.” Marzoyev was the son of Lt. Gen. Arkady Marzoyev, commander of Russia’s 18th Combined Arms Army, who faces charges of committing war crimes in Ukraine for ordering strikes on residential areas, schools, hospitals, and critical infrastructure. He is among five senior Russian officers charged in absentia by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) for orchestrating the bombardment of civilian targets in the Kherson region between January and October 2023. According to investigators, the attacks killed at least 113 civilians, including 3 children, and wounded more than 280 others. This elimination follows a string of Ukrainian strikes on senior Russian officers. In late August, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) released footage of a precision drone strike that seriously wounded Lt. Gen. Esedulla Abachev, deputy commander of Russia’s North Group of Forces. HUR said that such operations aim to weaken Russia’s command structure and deliver direct consequences for its war against Ukraine. The video showed a suicide drone hitting the general’s vehicle near Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk region. According to the SSO, the operation was carried out by the UA REG TEAM unit. Abachev reportedly lost an arm and a leg and was airlifted to Moscow for treatment. Abachev, a long-time participant in Kremlin wars, was charged by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General in 2023 for ordering bombardments of civilian areas in Luhansk while commanding the so-called “2nd Army Corps of the Luhansk People’s Republic.” Following Russia’s full-scale invasion, he led the 2nd Army Corps in Luhansk before being appointed in August 2024 to command forces covering the Kursk border. In July, Maj. Gen. Mikhail Gudkov, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, was reportedly killed in a missile strike on a command post in the Kursk region. Earlier this year, Ukrainian forces also targeted Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik near Moscow, along with other senior officers in occupied territories.
