On Tuesday morning, Ukrainian military intelligence reported the death of a senior Russian commander.

Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, chief of staff and first deputy commander of the 41st Army, was killed during fighting near Kharkiv.

Gerasimov had fought in the second Chechen war and in Syria.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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He would be the second commander this army loses from the Central Military District.

On February 28, Major General Andrei Suchowetskyj fell "heroically", as the "Union of Paratroopers of Russia" announced and President Putin later confirmed in a speech.

The officer is said to have been killed by a sniper near Mariupol.

He had previously served in Georgia and Syria, commanding an airborne division.

For Vitaliy Gerasimov – not to be confused with Valeriy Gerasimov, the Russian chief of staff – there was initially no such confirmation from the Russian side.

At least not from an official source.

The transcript of a phone call in which an employee of the Russian secret service FSB informed his superior in Tula near Moscow about the death of the commander circulated on social media.

This cannot be checked either.

But both men talk about the fact that the encrypted communication system is not working - a reason why the phone call could have been intercepted.

It is even believed to be the source of Ukrainian military intelligence.

Land gains are only successful in the south

It happens that commanders are also killed in war.

There are differing opinions as to whether it is better to lead a battle group from the front or from the rear.

The danger is greater up front, but it can also give troops a boost if their commander faces the same risk.

A Western intelligence official says Russian troops are stuck in several places, leaving their commanders with no choice but to lead from the front.

Seen in this light, the fallen generals pose a bigger problem: the invasion is making little progress in the north and east, and the Russians are suffering significant casualties.

Only in the south did they succeed in gaining ground, although the units also paid a high price in blood there.

This does not mean that Russia is about to lose the war.

The experience of previous Russian military operations shows that its leadership is more willing to accept losses than in the West.

Also, despite their losses in equipment and trained combat troops, the Russians outnumber Ukrainian forces.

According to American information, the Russians have now moved all of their 127 battalion combat groups to Ukraine.

The only thing that is clear so far is that the country cannot be taken by storm and the attackers are meeting a resistance they did not expect.

The sixty-kilometer convoy that first appeared on satellite images at the beginning of last week has become a symbol of the current situation in the north.

"We think he's still stuck, still not moving," a senior US Department of Defense official said Monday night.

It was a column of supply vehicles, which also included some combat units.

Ukrainian fighters attacked the convoy in several places and blocked an important bridge.

Both have slowed him down, the man from the Pentagon confirmed last week.