Vladimir Putin’s KGB pal loses elite paratrooper son after he is ‘shot by artillery’ during combat mission in Ukraine
THE elite paratrooper son of Vladimir Putin's KBG pal has died after being "shot by artillery" while fighting in the bloody Ukraine war.
Georgy Dudorov, 23, was "performing a combat mission" when he was killed by Ukrainian defenders, according to Russian accounts.
His father, KGB-trained Alexander Dudorov, had been handpicked by Putin to construct the track in Sochi for the Formula 1 Grand Prix ahead of the first race in 2014, say reports.
The 49-year-old's work was deemed high quality and the ultra-loyalist was moved from the private sector to take up a rapid succession of public jobs as he was groomed for a rapid rise by the president.
Alexander is currently deputy governor of sprawling Nenets autonomous Okrug in Russian north, a key oil and gas region, where he is in charge of keeping public order.
He has been tipped for further promotion after impressing Putin.
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Alexander's slain paratrooper son Georgy was “deputy commander of the reconnaissance company for military-political work of the 137th regiment of the 106th Tula Guards Airborne Division,” said a statement from the Russian Investigative Committee which described his death as “tragic”.
He had been a graduate of the committee’s cadet corps.
“It is known that on March 6, a convoy of his company was shot by artillery from Ukrainian nationalist detachments. Georgy was mortally wounded,” a statement said.
Another account said: “Face to face with danger, he honourably fulfilled his military duty to the Fatherland, receiving mortal wounds.”
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Russian top state investigator Alexander Bastrykin, head of the committee and a former university classmate of Putin’s, awarded Georgy a posthumous medal of valour and courage.
Alexander was a graduate from the Red Banner School of the KGB at the end of Soviet times, and is believed to have served in the FSB security service - one headed by Putin - after graduation.
He is a member of the leading pro-Putin political party, United Russia.
It comes after a fourth Russian general was killed, the Ukrainian authorities have said.
Major-General Oleg Mityaev, 47, died in the storming of Mariupol, along with seven members of an elite SWAT team, in a fresh blow to Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
A picture of the corpse of the decorated military officer, a father-of-two, was released by Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko.
It comes as...
- Putin's forces bomb theatre 'sheltering 1,200' with 'kids' written outside
- Russian soldiers brand maternity ward airstrike 'most perverse neo-Nazism'
- Surrogacy babies stranded in basement on outskirts of Kyiv
- Ukrainian mum-of-12 killed on front line fighting Putin's troops
- Boy, 11, who fled Ukraine alone with phone number on hand reunited with mum
- Biden brands Putin a 'war criminal' as he reveals £600m Ukraine aid package
The commander of the 150th motorised rifle division is the fourth Russian General to die in the war, according to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has branded Putin a "war criminal" as he unveiled a fresh £600million aid package for Ukraine - including armed drones.
The US president's sharp rebuke came after Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky made a desperate plea to US Congress for help to fight Russia's invading army.
Biden pledged: "We’re going to give Ukraine the arms to fight and defend themselves through all the difficult days ahead."
And referring to Putin, he told reporters: "I think he is a war criminal."
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The Kremlin punched back and condemned Biden's comment as "unacceptable rhetoric".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We consider unacceptable and unforgivable such rhetoric of the head of state, whose bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world."
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