- Ukraine said it has killed four Russian generals since the country invaded on February 24.
- The generals are in harm's way because "things are going badly," Western officials told Insider.
- As a result, they said, the generals try to manage the war more closely and put themselves at risk.
Russian generals are getting killed in Ukraine because they keep going near the front lines to try to personally turn around the faltering invasion, Western officials said on Thursday.
Ukraine said it has killed four generals since the start of the country's invasion on February 24. The toll is unusual for such senior military officers, who are not usually meant to be in the direct line of fire.
The unnamed officials told Insider: "Because things are going badly [Russian generals] have to go closer to the front to guide their troops in operations."
"They need to provide more close-up supervision, going further forward and becoming vulnerable to enemy action."
The officials also cited "very, very low morale among the Russian forces" as a possible reason that top commanders felt obliged to get closer to the front.
They spoke at a briefing for the media, and insisted on being identified only as officials from a Western government.
The latest general Ukraine said it had killed was Russian Major General Oleg Mityaev.
Mityaev was killed during the Russian assault on the city of Mariupol, Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's Interior Ministry, wrote on Telegram Wednesday.
The other Russian generals who have been killed include Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, Maj. Gen. Andrey Kolesnikov, Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov.
As Insider's Tom Porter noted on Thursday, US officials told The New York Times that one general was killed after using an unsecured line to communicate, which let Ukraine work out his location and hunt him down.