Last week Valeriy Gerasimov, the Russian chief of staff, visited the Donbass front.

That was unusual enough, the country's top general is leading the armed forces from Moscow.

Even more unusual is what is said to have happened on Saturday.

According to Ukrainian sources, Gerasimov attended school number 12 in Izyum, a strategically important hub in the northeast that the Russians captured in early April.

There hasn't been any teaching since then, the school is the provisional headquarters of the Russian troops in this area.

Thomas Gutschker

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

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Apparently the Ukrainians got wind of the important visit.

In the evening, about three dozen rockets hit the area, as documented by a video.

Up to two hundred soldiers and twenty senior commanders are said to have been killed, including Major General Andrei Simonov, who was in charge of electronic warfare in the Western Military District.

And Gerasimov?

There were reports on Sunday that he was slightly injured by a shrapnel and then quickly flown out.

However, the Ukrainian side also said that he had already left before the attack.

The American side initially only confirmed that he had actually visited the headquarters.

"Our working hypothesis is that he was there because they realized they hadn't solved all the problems yet," one official said.

The course of the day should have confirmed Gerasimov in this assessment, no matter where he was exactly.

The Ukrainian attack not only joins a list of feats that the Ukrainians, neither in the west nor in the east, were expected to be capable of when the Russian attack began at the end of February.

The circumstances also indicate that Moscow is slowly beginning to have doubts about the course of the war and its own strength.

Why else would the chief of staff have put himself in such danger?

If Simonov's death is confirmed, he would be the tenth general to fall during this campaign - a surprisingly high number.

No real breakthrough

According to Western experts, both inside and outside the secret services, the Russian offensive in Donbass is not going well.

The Pentagon recently said the troops were well behind schedule.

It is assumed that President Vladimir Putin wants to see significant success by May 9, the day of victory in the “Great Patriotic War” against Nazi Germany, after the first phase of the war had ended with an ignominious retreat from the Kyiv area.

At the end of March, Moscow initiated the second phase and stated that the goal was to conquer the entire Donbass.

The Russian forces were frantically regrouped and transferred to the east.

On April 18, a new major offensive began with massive artillery attacks on Ukrainian positions.