Russian General Pavel Klimenko, who commanded troops in occupied Donetsk Oblast and allegedly ran camps torturing his own soldiers, died in Ukraine on Nov. 7, according to his sisters.
Anton Geraschenko, former adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, said that Klimenko was killed by a drone strike while riding his motorbike near the front-line city of Krasnohorivka, but the circumstances of his death have not been independently confirmed.
Pro-war Russian bloggers first reported the death of Klimenko, 47. His sisters confirmed his death in the comments to those posts, and the Russian investigative outlet Important Stories verified that the accounts in fact belonged to Klimenko's siblings.
Klimenko led Russia's 5th Donetsk Motorized Rifle Brigade. Members of this brigade were accused of torturing pro-Kremlin U.S. blogger Russell Bentley to death in April 2024.
Bentley, a pro-Russian sympathizer who fought against Ukraine during the 2014 invasion of Donbas, was reportedly abducted and tortured by Russian soldiers after being mistaken for an American spy.
According to the Russian news organization Astra, Klimenko also set up torture camps in occupied Donetsk for Russian soldiers. Klimenko reportedly forced soldiers to hand over their salaries in exchange for moving them from the front lines. He also allegedly used torture to coerce injured soldiers to join assault groups.
Klimenko is the eighth Russian general killed in the war against Ukraine whose death has been independently confirmed by journalists and researchers.
Chris York
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