A seventh Russian general has reportedly been killed in combat during his country’s invasion of Ukraine, according to reports.
“Ukraine’s defence ministry says another Russian general, Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev, was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson. Rezantsev was the commander of Russia’s 49th combined army,” the BBC reported. “A western official said he was the seventh general to die in Ukraine, and the second lieutenant general – the highest rank officer reportedly killed.”
The report said that intercepted communications between Russian soldiers indicated that his soldiers were not happy with his leadership because he had claimed that the war would be over within hours just a few days after it had started.
“Ukrainian media reported on Friday that the general was killed at the Chornobaivka airbase near Kherson, which Russia is using as a command post and has been attacked by Ukraine’s military several times,” the report added. “Kherson was the first Ukrainian city to be occupied by Russian forces, although there are reports that daily protests are held there against the Russian occupation.”
The development comes after news broke late this week that a Russian brigade commander was allegedly killed by his own troops in response to the staggering number of losses the unit had suffered during its invasion of Ukraine under his leadership.
“A Russian brigade commander has been killed deliberately by his own troops after his unit suffered many losses in Ukraine,” Sky News reporter Deborah Haynes reported. “Colonel Medvechek, commander of 37 Motor Rifle Brigade, was run over by his soldiers.”
“The brigade commander of one of the units was killed by his own troops…we believe, as a consequence of the scale of loss that had been taken by his brigade,” a Western official reportedly told Haynes. “That just gives an insight into perhaps some of the morale challenges that Russian forces are having.”
“We believe he was killed by his own troops deliberately,” the official reportedly added. “Indeed we believe he was run over by his own troops and I believe he was the commander of the 37 Motor Rifle Brigade.”
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) revealed this week that it believes that the Russian military has suffered up to 40,000 casualties during its invasion of Ukraine, which began one month ago.
The figure — which includes troops that have been killed, wounded, taken prisoner, or are missing in action — was calculated using figures provided by Ukraine, information obtained from Russia, and intelligence from open sources.
“The senior NATO official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the organization believes between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, and that the 30,000 to 40,000 estimated casualties are “based on the assumption that for every soldier killed, three are wounded,” The Washington Post reported. “Death tolls have been hard for independent observers to verify during the conflict, with the fog of war making solid information difficult to obtain and the ferocity of the conflict impeding efforts to count the dead. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 1,300 members of the Ukrainian forces have been killed, but The Washington Post has been unable to verify that figure. Russia has not updated its official figure of 498 dead and 1,597 wounded since announcing it one week into the invasion.”