Two more Russian commanders have been killed on the frontline in Ukraine after a top general was shot dead by snipers, a Western official has claimed.

Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky, 47, was reportedly killed by a Ukrainian sniper while the latest deaths since Russia invaded last week, were also both senior officers.

One was a divisional commander and the other was a regimental commander, the Telegraph has reported.

The Western official believes this is down to the commanders having to get ‘closer to the front’ as Russia feels progress still has not been made in Ukraine.

‘The reason why that’s happening is that commanders feel they have to move further forward to get greater impetus and control over operations,’ the official said.

‘That’s an indication perhaps of some degree of frustration, some degree of lack of progress and they’re trying to impose their personality onto the battlefield and then putting themselves at personal risk.’

Mr. Sukhovetsky, who was the deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of Russia’s Central Military District, died on Wednesday as Ukrainian defence forces repelled the Russian offensive.

His death, announced on social media by his colleague Sergey Chipilyov, was widely reported by several Russian and Ukrainian news outlets and a military source confirmed that he was killed ‘by a sniper’.

After days of denial, the Kremlin on Wednesday admitted that 498 of its troops have been killed and 1,600 injured in the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, but the true figure is said to be higher than that.

Kyiv says Russia has now lost around 9,200 men in the fighting, along with hundreds of tanks, almost a thousand armored vehicles, and dozens of helicopters and jets.