Major General Vladimir Zavadsky, deputy commander of Russia's 14th Army Corps, has been killed in Ukraine, a top regional official said.
The governor of Russia's Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev,said Zavadsky had died "at a combat post in the specialoperation zone", without giving further details.
"Special military operation" is the term that Russia uses to describe the war in Ukraine, now approaching the end ofits second year.
The investigative news outlet iStories said Mr Zavadsky was the seventh Major General whose death had been confirmed by Russia, and the 12 senior officer overall to be reported deadsince the start of the war.
Deaths of senior Russian officers, which military analysts have attributed in some cases to Ukrainian success inintercepting lax communications, have become rarer as the war has progressed.
Mr Zavadsky was a much-decorated officer and a former tank commander, said Mr Gusev, adding that his death was a heavy lossthat caused "transfixing pain".
The news comes as Ukraine's air force said that it shot down 18 out of 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones and one missile that Russia fired at its territory overnight.
Moscow typically fires dozens of drones at Ukraine every week in waves of overnight attacks targeting energy facilities and military sites deep behind the frontlines.
"As a result of combat operations, 18 attack drones and one X-59 guided missile were destroyed," Ukraine's air force said in a social media post.
Local officials reported attempted attacks on the western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi, as well as Mykolaiv and Kherson in the south.
In Kherson, a cultural centre and a shop were hit, Ukraine's army said.
It said there was no information on possible casualties.
Kyiv fears Russia will escalate its strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities in a bid to disrupt power and heating supplies as temperatures plunge below zero.
Russia has also reported downing several attempted Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks, including some launched at the capital, Moscow.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's forces launched a drone attack on an oil depot in Russia-controlled Luhansk last night.
A fire that broke out after the attack has been extinguished and there was no information about casualties, according to a report by Russian news agency RIA Novosti,citing Russian-installed authorities in the Ukrainian region.
