Facing stiff resistance, Russian troops have failed to capture any major city in the month since invading Ukraine.
Kyiv:
In fresh setbacks for the Russian assault on Ukraine, a top commander of the country was killed by his own “demoralised” men while a general was believed to have also died, reports have said.
Western officials claim that seven Russian generals have so far been killed during the war in Ukraine.
The latest to die, Lieutenant General Yakov Rezanstev, was a commander of Russia’s 49th Combined Arms Army in its southern military district.
Four days after Russia launched a military operation, Rezanstev had claimed that the war would be over within hours, according to the BBC.
Facing stiff resistance, Russian troops have failed to capture any major city in the month since invading Ukraine. According to Russia’s defence ministry, 1,351 military personnel have been killed and 3,835 injured since it launched a military offensive on February 24.
Western officials said that they believe that a Russian commander was killed by his own “demoralised” men. Russian soldiers drove a tank over Colonel Yuri Medvedev after their unit suffered heavy losses in Ukraine, reports The Independent.
Russian soldiers drove a tank over one of their senior officers after their unit suffered a massive number of losses in combat against Ukrainian forces, according to officials in the west and Kyiv.
Colonel Yuri Medvedev is said to have suffered severe leg injuries in the attack, which took place after almost half the troops in his brigade of 1,500 either died, or were wounded, in a series of clashes in the early weeks of the war.
Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, 48, was killed in a strike by the Ukrainian armed forces, they say.
He was Commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District.
The Russian Army Sources have not yet confirmed the death.
Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of the President’s Office, said: “Over the past day, our troops – as we previously reported and we can now say for sure – killed the commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District of Russia, Lieutenant General Yakov Vladimirovich Rezantsev.
Reframing Russia’s goals may make it easier for President Vladimir Putin to claim a face-saving victory, military analysts said. Moscow had said its goals included demilitarising Ukraine. Western officials dismiss this as a baseless pretext for a war they say is aimed at toppling Ukraine’s government.
