Major General Vladimir Zavadsky, deputy commander of Russia's 14th Army Corps, was killed in Ukraine, a top regional official said on Monday.

Alexander Gusev, governor of Russia's Voronezh region, said Zavadsky died "at a combat post in the special operation zone," without giving further details.

"Special military operation" is the term that Russia uses to describe the war in Ukraine, now approaching the end of its second year.

The investigative news outlet iStories said Zavadsky was the seventh Major General whose death was confirmed by Russia, and the 12 senior officer overall to be reported dead since the start of the war.

Deaths of senior Russian officers, which military analysts have attributed in some cases to Ukrainian success in intercepting lax communications, have become rarer as the war has progressed.

Zavadsky was a much-decorated officer and a former tank commander, said Gusev, adding that his death was a heavy loss that caused "transfixing pain."