LONDON, (Reuters) – A Russian general has been killed in Eastern Ukraine according to a Russian journalist for state media. This is the latest military death from Moscow.

Alexander Sladkov published the Telegram report via state television, but did not specify when or where Major General Roman Kutuzov died.

The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to our request.

Russian forces are intensifying their efforts to capture Sievierodonetsk. This is a crucial city in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas. Moscow has failed to take Kiev’s capital Kyiv earlier in the war.

Russia considers military deaths to be state secrets in peace times and has not updated official figures for Ukraine’s casualties since March 25, when the country reported that 1351 Russian soldiers had been killed during its military operation on February 24.

Russia asserts it is conducting “special military operations” in order to demilitarize Ukraine, and remove any nationalists from the country. Russia claims are dismissed by the West and Ukraine as an excuse to invade.

On Monday, Britain’s defense ministry declared that Russia had suffered substantial losses from its mid- and lower-ranking officers in Ukraine.