Another prominent Russian general has been killed by UKRAINIAN forces, making it the fifth since Putin’s soldiers invaded the country last month.

Lieutenant-General Andrei Mordvichev, commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army, was killed in action at Kherson, in southern Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Major-General Oleg Mityaev, 47, was murdered in Mariupol, increasing the total number of Russian officers killed in the war to 13.

It comes after Ukraine said this morning that in the previous 24 hours, it shot down two Russian planes and three helicopters.

Last night, Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev, the commander of the 8th General Army, perished in battle, dealing another blow to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The military chief is believed to have been murdered in the Russian-controlled Kherson Airport, which has been hit by Ukrainian strikes in recent days.

“The commander of the 8th All-Military Army of the Southern Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant-General Andrey Mordvishev, was killed as a result of fire on the enemy by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” according to a statement from the army general staff in Kyiv.

Ukraine stated this morning that they had attacked 12 Russian aviation targets in the previous day.

Russia continues to suffer huge losses, according to the armed forces, with Russian equipment being destroyed in the Mykolayiv and Sumy areas.

Major-General Oleg Mityaev, 47, and seven members of an elite SWAT unit were killed in the storming of Mariupol on Wednesday.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko shared a photo of the deceased distinguished military commander, a father of two.

According to Kyiv, the commander of the 150th motorised rifle division is the fourth Russian general to die in the war.

In his nighttime address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned the death of another Russian general but did not name him.

Meanwhile, photographs of six elite “maroon beret” special forces fighters from the Dzerzhinsky Division’s Vityaz Special Purpose Centre were released in Russia.

The squad is named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, the dreaded creator of the Soviet Union’s secret police.

Vladimir Putin has now lost a total of 13 commanders in the invasion, following the death of a spy captain during a “top-secret” mission in Ukraine.

Captain Alexey Glushchak, a GRU military intelligence spy from Tyumen, Siberia, perished in the carnage in Mariupol, but no details about his death have been disclosed.

“The circumstances of the death of the Tyumen hero are not divulged due to the stringent secrecy of the military operation,” a statement read.

The GRU was responsible for the Novichok poisoning of renegade spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

Glushchak’s funeral in Russia, where he was buried with full military honours and a guard of honour, was captured on camera.

It was revealed that the military intelligence officer had spoken to both his wife and mother in Russia on the day he died.

He called to congratulate them on International Women’s Day, but they found out later that day that he had been murdered.

Even though those officially acknowledged as having fallen in Ukraine are viewed as a small proportion of the total number, best estimates say it now runs into the thousands, his death coincides with the first statements of indignation and dismay on the number of coffins currently returning to Russia.

Glushchak will be honoured after his death.

Moscow has not provided an up-to-date count of individuals killed in the war and has only named a few of the dead, including senior generals.

There are numerous funerals.

Corporal Danil Novolodsky, 24, a senior gunner on an air assault artillery unit, was also laid to rest.

Vladimir Putin issued a decree awarding him the Order of Courage.

He was from Ulan-Ude, Siberia’s capital and the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, a predominantly Buddhist province that has had a disproportionate number of Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine.

Tens of thousands of troops were deployed west on the Trans-Siberian Railway ahead of the invasion to fight in the imminent battle.

Another orphan raised by a foster family, Vladimir Plekhanov, 24, was buried in the same place.

According to accounts, Sagyndyk Kudaibergenov, a 22-year-old Tyumen resident, was buried with military honours, just like the GRU agent.