Russia confirmed that Major General Mikhail Gudkov, deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy and a recipient of the Hero of Russia award, was killed on 2 July when a Ukrainian missile strike hit a command post near the town of Korenevo in the country’s Kursk region, close to the Ukrainian border. Governor Oleg Kozhemyako of Primorsky Krai and state news agency TASS said Gudkov died “while fulfilling his duty,” making him one of the most senior Russian officers lost since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Russian media reported that the attack also killed at least ten other officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Nariman Shikhaliyev. Although Kyiv has not publicly claimed responsibility, several Ukrainian sources said the strike was carried out with precision-guided munitions, and some Russian commentators attributed it to U.S.–supplied HIMARS rockets. Gudkov, 49, had been promoted by President Vladimir Putin in March to oversee naval infantry, missile and artillery forces after previously commanding the 155th Separate Guards Naval Infantry Brigade, which suffered heavy losses during the battles for Vuhledar. Gudkov’s casket was laid to rest with full military honours at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery outside Moscow on 8 July. His death underscores Russia’s vulnerability to long-range strikes deep inside its own territory and further complicates naval command at a time when the Black Sea Fleet is already under pressure from repeated Ukrainian attacks. The shadow conflict has also reached Kyiv. On 10 July, Colonel Ivan Voronich of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) was shot dead with a silenced pistol in a residential district of the capital. The SBU said on 13 July that its forces tracked down and killed two Russian agents who allegedly carried out the assassination on orders from Russia’s Federal Security Service. Voronich had overseen covert operations, including cross-border raids into Russia’s Kursk region last year, according to Ukrainian and Western media.