…..becomes highest-ranking casualty of Ukraine war
The deputy governor of a Russian region has been killed fighting in Ukraine thus becoming the highest-ranking Russian official to die in the war.
Sergey Efremov, the deputy governor of Russia’s eastern region of Primorsky Krai, was killed returning to Russian lines from a battle with Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.
Oleg Kozhemyako, the area’s governor, said in an emotional video that his deputy had died a hero, adding: “I know that his friends and comrades will do everything to avenge him.”
The Kremlin has encouraged officials to lead by example and sign up to fight – but most deploy to VIP drone units that stay well behind the front line.
It appears that Efremov, who trained as a soldier and graduated from the prestigious airborne officers’ college in Ryazan, took a different approach.
He set up a volunteer unit called the Tigers in June 2022, when Russia was on the back foot across Ukraine.
He fought with the unit until 2023 when he returned to Primorsky Krai. Apparently motivated by the Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region in August 2024, Efremov then rejoined the Tigers.
“He honoured and courageously fulfilled combat missions there, glorifying the marine infantry, glorifying the Tigers and Primorsky Krai,” said Mr Kozhemyako.
Photographs on the Telegram social messaging app showed 51-year-old Efremov to be a thick-set, jowly man.
He was reportedly travelling in a car blown up by a landmine. Another Russian army officer was also killed.
Denis Pushilin – head of the occupied Donetsk, which Putin annexed in 2022 – knew Efremov and called his death an “irreparable loss”.
“He always showed a keen interest in the topic of the socio-economic development of the Donetsk People’s Republic and strengthening the ties of our region with Primorsk,” he said.
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin speechwriter and now a high-profile pro-war activist, also described Efremov as a hero who showed the world that Russian officials were willing to risk their lives for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“They say that the Russian elite are almost entirely secret traitors and are just waiting to surrender to the West? This is not true. There are more and more patriots in the Russian elite,” he said.
Efremov, who reportedly had four children, had been the deputy mayor of the town of Ussuriysk, which has a population of around 150,000 and lies 60 miles north of Vladivostok, when he set up the Tigers.
