The nephew of Russia’s hardline deputy defence minister has been killed by Ukrainian forces in the war.
Captain Adam Khamkhoyev, 30, a paratrooper commander, was killed on Friday night in Ukraine and later buried in the southern Russian province of Ingushetia.
His uncle is Colonel-General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Russia's hardline deputy defence minister is a pro- war figure in Russian President Vladimir Putin ’s Government.
Captain Khamkhoyev’s death marks the first time a senior official of Putin has suffered the loss of a close relative in his war in Ukraine.
Colonel Yevkurov flew to Karabulak to attend his nephew's funeral.
Baza news outlet reported that he “shared his condolences, spoke to the elderlies and the religious part of the community, and then flew back to Moscow.”
Khamkhoyev was a graduate of the elite Ryazan Airborne Forces school and a commander of a Russian airborne assault squadron.
His uncle, Yevkurov, was a decorated paratrooper who once won the Hero of Russia honour, the country's highest award.
No details have been released from either Russia or Ukraine on the details of his death.
The news comes as Russian soldier Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, was given a life sentence after being convicted of killing a 62-year-old civilian in the first war crimes trial since the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin has faced continued losses with the British Ministry of Defence saying that in three months of the war in Ukraine, Russia is likely to have suffered casualty numbers similar to those experienced by the Soviet Union during a nine-year conflict in Afghanistan.
Yevkurov is a former governor and now one of the deputies of close Putin ally Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister.
He was the subject of an assassination bid in 2009.
In March in a harrowing clip, he was seen visiting a bed-bound soldier in hospital.
The serviceman had lost a leg and looked wide-eyed and scared as Yevkurov told him: “ I hope you’ll get back on your feet.”
A report in the New York Times states that the United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that have allowed Ukrainians to target and kill Putin's generals, with the attrition rate now standing at around one colonel every two days.
Pentagon spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US was providing “Ukraine with information and intelligence that they can use to defend themselves”.
But Adrienne Watson, a national security council spokesperson, said intelligence was not provided “with the intent to kill Russian generals”.
Ukrainian officials said they have killed around 12 generals on the front lines.
