A senior Russian military commander has been killed in a battle in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry has said. General Vitaly Gerasimov, commander of the 41st Battalion of the Russian Army, was killed along with other Russian officers, the statement said. 

Russia has not commented, but if confirmed, Gerasimov would be the second Russian officer of this rank to be killed. 

Russian authorities have given few public accounts of casualties among their soldiers since launching the February 24 invasion of Ukraine. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said "there were dead and injured," but did not give figures. 

On March 2, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted the Russian Defence Ministry as saying that 498 Russian soldiers had been killed and 1,597 wounded. Ukraine, on the other hand, has said its forces have killed more than 11,000 Russian soldiers. 

Another Russian officer, General Andrei Sukhovetsky, was reported killed in Ukraine nearly two weeks ago.