It was confirmed by VDV-affiliated Telegram channels.

The 31st VDV Brigade was among the first formations to be transferred to Bakhmut during the first half of May in conjunction with Wagner’s withdrawal and was basically tasked with fixing the mess created by the 72nd Brigade (3rd Corps). Until July it took very high losses, at the end of that month it was sent to the second line and replaced by the 83rd and 11th VDV Brigades. The former since July has been the protagonist of the counterattacks and the clashes inside the settlement of Klishchiivka and is paying the consequences in terms of attrition; the latter (by far the most fresh among them) has been carrying out support actions in Andriivka and coincidentally in the last week quite a few obituaries of members of the 11th Brigade have come out.

Update: it was recently reported that elements of the 83rd VDV Brigade were spotted in Nesteryanka (Orikhiv sector) - pretty interesting development if confirmed.

Earlier this month the 31st Brigade returned to action, despite it had been said that it would be withdrawn also in order to be the basis for the creation of the new 104 VDV Division. Looks like it had another tough few weeks. It’s no coincidence that this month the Russians would have sent the 51st VDV Regiment and apparently even the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade to the southern flank of Bakhmut, along with reinforcements from the 3rd Corps. If the northern flank had not proven to be so stubborn and also better supplied than one might have believed, the situation could have become very interesting even regarding the city of Bakhmut itself.

Of course! Here’s Za VDV, among the first to report the news of his death: https://t.me/vdv_nkn/24328

In the latest posts on this channel there’s the date of the funeral.

Here’s the news given by Grey Zone: https://t.me/grey_zone/20641

Here’s from a channel that posts the confirmed deaths of Russian soldiers and officers: https://t.me/poisk_in_ua/32672

Other channels (e.g. komdiv_76) and some comments in GreyZone’s post, while confirming the death of the Colonel, claim that he had actually become commander of the 85th Brigade of the 2nd Corps since last month, and hence he wasn’t anymore the commander of the 31st VDV Brigade. Unconfirmed for now. And doesn’t change much really.