Russian general who told Putin Konstantinovka was captured dies in Ukraine

Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov, deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's main military-political directorate, published what amounted to official confirmation, writing that Major General Anton Grunis, known by the call sign "Grozny," had "passed on to the next world."

Grunis commanded the 4th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade. According to BBC, he took part in the assault on Bakhmut and in attacks on Chasiv Yar, and commanded the offensive on Konstantinovka. A Telegram channel run by a community of Suvorov military school graduates said Grunis graduated from the Kazan Suvorov Military School.

According to Russian media, it was Grunis who in early July reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Konstantinovka had been brought fully under the control of Russian troops. At the same time, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov announced the city's "liberation." The Russian Defense Ministry's press service, however, continued to report fighting in Konstantinovka, while the Ukrainian Armed Forces and President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that the city had passed under Russian control. Zelensky proposed to Putin that they "meet in Konstantinovka, if it is indeed under Russia's control."

Fighting for Konstantinovka has been under way since October 2025 and continues. According to maps from the Ukrainian project DeepState and the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), most of the city lies in the so-called gray zone; according to The Moscow Times, ISW assesses Russian forces as controlling roughly 70% of the city.

Two weeks before his death, on August 27, Grunis was put forward for the title of Hero of Russia; according to BBC, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov personally presented him with the star. The Defense Ministry said at the time that "Gold Stars" had been awarded to servicemen "for courage and heroism."

The circumstances of his death have not been disclosed. The pro-war military blogger Anastasia Kashevarova wrote on September 13 that "overnight the front lost one of its Heroes," without naming him. Important Stories, citing leaked data, reported that Grunis was attached to Alchevsk in the Luhansk region. On September 13, the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported a strike on that city, naming as targets warehouses of material and technical supplies, weapons and equipment. The same day, the SBU attacked the village of Karpaty near Alchevsk.

Grunis was born in Kazan in 1979. According to BBC, he took part in the Second Chechen War, the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, the annexation of Crimea and the campaign in Syria. Between 2021 and 2023 he repeatedly crossed the border between North and South Ossetia, and in 2023 he returned to the ranks of the Russian army and soon took charge of the staff of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade. In May 2023, Putin publicly described meeting Grunis without naming him.

According to estimates by Important Stories, Grunis became the 23rd Russian general killed in the war against Ukraine. According to open-source data as of September 2026, at least 15 Russian generals have been killed in the war in Ukraine, including those killed in assassination attempts; Russia does not report its losses.

Accounts differ: the Russian Defense Ministry officially confirmed Grunis's death only through Alaudinov's post, while not disclosing the circumstances; BBC notes that the general's taxpayer identification number had not been entered into the online database of invalid numbers at the time of publication, that relatives' phones went unanswered, and that a request to the Defense Ministry's press service went unanswered. The cause and circumstances of the death are described differently: Kashevarova suggested a strike and a possible leak "from their own," while Important Stories links the death to his attachment to Alchevsk, where Ukrainian forces struck on September 13, though this has not been independently confirmed.