🟪 UKRAINIAN STRIKE REPORTEDLY KILLED RUSSIAN 51ST ARMY COMMANDER SERGEI MILCHAKOV
September 14, 2026
The ATESH partisan movement reports that Lieutenant General Sergei Milchakov, the Russian officer associated with command of the 51st Guards Combined Arms Army, was killed in Ukraine’s August 26 missile strikes on Russian command posts in occupied Donetsk.
We covered the attack when it happened. Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed that Ukrainian aircraft struck Russia’s primary and reserve command posts near Donetsk with air-launched missiles. Open-source analysts identified one target as a suspected headquarters of the 51st Army.
Evidence from the scene pointed toward French-made SCALP cruise missiles—the French version of Britain’s Storm Shadow. Photographs showed debris marked “MBDA France,” while the damage indicated that multiple precision weapons penetrated the reinforced structure before detonating inside. Ukraine never publicly identified the missile, however, and alternative claims involving other Western or Ukrainian weapons remain unverified.
Russian military channels reported at the time that Milchakov was attending a senior command meeting and may have been killed alongside several members of his staff. ATESH now says information obtained through its network has confirmed his death, although Russia has not officially acknowledged losing the general.
Born in Sverdlovsk in 1973, Milchakov graduated from the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School and later advanced through Russia’s conventional ground forces. He served in Syria and became a deputy commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army, one of the principal Russian formations involved in operations against Ukraine.
By 2023, Milchakov was commanding the Russian-controlled 1st Donetsk Army Corps. That formation grew from the occupation forces Russia established in Donetsk following its initial invasion in 2014. Moscow formally absorbed it into the Russian Armed Forces and reorganized it as the 51st Combined Arms Army in 2024.
Its formations participated in Russia’s offensives across Donetsk Oblast, including the battles around Avdiivka and the town of New York. Russia awarded Milchakov the title “Hero of the Russian Federation” in 2024 following those operations, which brought enormous destruction and heavy casualties to Ukrainian territory.
An army commander operates far above the tactical level. Milchakov’s responsibilities included coordinating multiple brigades and regiments, assigning reserves, organizing artillery and drone support, managing logistics and turning orders from Russia’s higher command into operations across a large section of the front.
His reported death would therefore represent more than the removal of one officer. Russia may appoint a replacement, but it cannot instantly replace Milchakov’s operational knowledge of its units, positions, supply network and plans in the Donetsk sector.
One detail remains unresolved. Ukrainian military sources reported in January that Milchakov had been removed from command following failed Russian attacks near Dobropillia. It is unclear whether he was later restored, retained another senior role or was attending the headquarters in a command capacity when Ukraine struck.
The casualty is Sergei Milchakov, the Russian general—not Alexei Milchakov, the neo-Nazi co-founder of the Rusich sabotage group, as some early reports incorrectly claimed.
If ATESH’s information is accurate, the August 26 attack accomplished the central purpose of a decapitation strike: penetrating Russia’s supposedly protected rear, eliminating senior leadership and disrupting the command structure directing Moscow’s invasion.