At least 20 Russian officers eliminated in AFU strike on Donetsk in late August – media. PHOTO

At least 20 Russian officers, including seven colonels, were eliminated in a Ukrainian missile strike on temporarily occupied Donetsk on August 26, 2026.

Mediazona identified the Russian service members, Censor.NET reports.

Details of the strike

On August 26, Denis Pushilin, Russia’s proxy in the occupied part of the Donetsk region, claimed that Ukrainian forces had attacked the city with missiles, allegedly injuring eight civilians.

However, Ukrainian OSINT projects said the strike hit a building at 97 Illicha Avenue and an underground parking garage with 600 spaces beneath an unfinished residential complex. Both sites were used as Russian army command posts.

Russian officers eliminated

According to Mediazona, 18 Russian service members died that day, while two others later died of their wounds.

The officers served at the headquarters of the Tsentr group of forces, including the headquarters of the Central Military District and Russia’s 41st Combined Arms Army.

According to state registers and public obituaries, those killed included three colonels, a lieutenant colonel and four majors. Specifically:

Colonel Artyom Berdyugin, 38, head of the Intelligence Planning and Coordination Department of the Intelligence Directorate;
Colonel Alexander Kalyanov, 50, head of the Special Intelligence Department of the Intelligence Directorate;
Colonel Sergey Legky, 47, deputy chief of Electronic Warfare Troops at the Electronic Warfare Troops Directorate;
Lieutenant Colonel Yury Zhigalov, 39, head of the Joint Training and Coordination with Service Branches Section of the Organization and Planning Department of the Combat Training Directorate;
Major Sergey Lykov, 37, an officer in the Operations Department of the headquarters of the Missile Troops and Artillery Directorate;
Major Vyacheslav Latyshev, 41, an officer in the Coordination and Operational Directions Section of the Operations Department of the Engineer Troops Directorate;
Major Dmitry Ovcharenko, 34, head of the Engineer Training Section for Combined Arms Formations and Military Units within the Troop Training Department of the Engineer Troops Directorate;
Major Anton Shcherbanev, 36, an officer in the Intelligence Planning and Coordination Department of the Intelligence Directorate.

Meanwhile, three colonels, three lieutenant colonels, a major, a captain and a senior lieutenant were killed at the headquarters of the 41st Combined Arms Army:

Colonel Sergey Laptev, 48, department head and deputy chief of staff of the Operations Department;
Colonel Vasily Latyshev, 55, chief of staff and deputy chief of Missile Troops and Artillery at the headquarters of the Missile Troops and Artillery Department;
Colonel Yevgeny Timkin, 39, head of the Engineer Troops Department;
Lieutenant Colonel Artyom Akimov, 42, deputy chief of troops in the Air Defense Department;
Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Moiseyenko, 42, a senior officer in the Command and Control Organization Section of the Operations Department at army headquarters;
Lieutenant Colonel Rustam Fakhrutdinov, 43, chief of intelligence and deputy chief of staff for intelligence in the Intelligence and Automated Troop Command and Control System Section at the headquarters of the Missile Troops and Artillery Department;
Major Oleg Berezovsky, 34, an information security officer in the Section for Organizing Secrecy Procedures and Protecting Information against Unauthorized Access at Computer Facilities of the State Secrets Protection Service;
Captain Kirill Polozkov, 28, an officer in the Intelligence Department;
Senior Lieutenant Oleg Golubenko, 26, an officer in the Intelligence and Automated Troop Command and Control System Section at the headquarters of the Missile Troops and Artillery Department.

The exact postings of three other officers killed — Colonel Andrey Selyansky, Lieutenant Colonel Denis Pavlov and Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Basenko — could not be confirmed.

"This is the largest single loss of Russian army officers during the Russian-Ukrainian war that we know of to date," the outlet’s report states.