General Dubbed ‘Hero Of Russia’ Critically Wounded In Border Region

A Russian general has been seriously injured near the Ukrainian border, officials in Russia’s republic of Dagestan – which is where he’s from – have said, which is consistent with earlier reports sourced to Ukrainian intelligence.

Dagestan’s leader, Sergei Melikov, announced on Telegram that Gen. Esedulla Abachev was critically wounded several days ago in a border region. Regional media says he holds the honorary government-awarded title of ‘Hero of Russia’.

“He is currently receiving care at one of the country’s top military hospitals,” Melikov wrote, nothing that the general’s condition is serious but stable.

Ukraine’s military intelligence had previously claimed that 57-year-old Abachev lost both an arm and a leg after his convoy was attacked overnight in Russia’s Kursk region.

He was rushed to a hospital in the Moscow area, the reports said, where military doctors carried out the emergency amputations.

According to background via Reuters:

At least a dozen Russian generals have been killed in the war that started with Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Abachev graduated from the Higher Tank Command School in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991. He received the Gold Star of the Hero of Russia for his role in combat missions during the current war.

Dagestani leader Melikov said he was the pride of the region, describing him as “a combat general and a wise commander who always tries to protect his personnel, sometimes neglecting his own safety”.

Ukrainian sources say that Abachev was serving as deputy commander of Russia’s “Sever” (North) group of forces at the time of the attack – although the Russian defense ministry has not confirmed such details.

Video allededly showing “The result of the Ukrainian strike on a Russian military column in the Kursk region. It is likely that this is where Russian Lieutenant General Abachev was seriously injured.”

The result of the Ukrainian strike on a Russian military column in the Kursk region. It is likely that this is where Russian Lieutenant General Abachev was seriously injured https://t.co/NK6j5S8cQw pic.twitter.com/dy3VgDCj5F

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 17, 2025

President Vladimir Putin had formally bestowed on Abachev the Hero of Russia title in July 2022 for leading the capture of Lysychansk while leading a vital unit of the Luhansk People’s Militia.

The drone war, and attacks on energy sites, has only continued to ramp up, with vital oil and gas locations being hit inside Russia in the last several days and weeks.