Russian brigade commander killed by his own
forces
Russian colonel is believed to have been deliberately
run over by his troops, Western officials say.
The colonel was run over by an armored vehicle and
suffered grave injuries to both legs |
BY CRISTINA
GALLARDO
March 25,
2022 6:19 pm
https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-brigade-commander-killed-by-his-own-forces/
LONDON — A
Russian brigade commander has been killed by his own forces in another
indication of boiling discontent among Russian forces deployed in and around
Ukraine, Western officials said.
The
colonel, commander of the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade, was run over by an armored
vehicle and suffered grave injuries to both legs.
“The
brigade commander was killed by his own troops, we believe, as a consequence of
the scale of losses that have been taken by his brigade,” one official said.
“We believe that he was killed by his own troops deliberately. We believe that
he was run over by his own troops.”
The
confirmation followed a Facebook post on Wednesday by prominent Ukrainian
journalist and YouTuber Roman Tsimbalyuk, who said that troops had been angered
by the 50 percent casualty rate suffered by the unit deployed to the Kyiv
region. One soldier driving an armored vehicle deliberately ran over the
commander, who was shown in video posts being taken on a stretcher for
treatment to neighboring Belarus. He was later reported to have died.
The Western
official also confirmed Ukrainian reports that a lieutenant general commanding
the 49th Combined Arms Army had died in the fighting, making him the seventh
Russian general to be killed in combat since the invasion began.
Ukrainian
presidential spokesman Oleksiy Arestovych earlier named the lieutenant general
as Yakov Ryazantsev, and said he had been killed at the Chernobaevka aerodrome
outside the southern city of Kherson — where Russian forces have repeatedly
suffered losses in their campaign to break out from the Crimean peninsula to
the northwest.
Russian
forces have struggled with logistics supply and shortages of food during the
first month of their invasion of Ukraine. Soldiers taken prisoner by Ukrainian
forces have told their captors they had been made to believe they would carry
out exercises near the border of Ukraine, rather than engage in war.
Russia’s
defense ministry said earlier that the first phase of its military operation in
Ukraine was mostly complete and it would focus on completely “liberating”
eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
The Western
official said Russia “is recognizing that it cannot pursue its operations on
multiple axes simultaneously” and is trying to concentrate its forces, both in
terms of logistics supply and firepower, on a more limited number of
approaches.
At the
beginning of the war, the West estimated Russia had between 120-150 battalion
tactical groups deployed around Ukraine, but about 20 of those are now no
longer believed to be combat effective. Some are being pulled back into Russia
for maintenance or repair; others have suffered heavy losses, and in some cases
merged with other groups to form one, the Western official said.
The
Russians appear to have paused operations in Kyiv and other areas, to limit the
amount of logistics supply that would be required there, and are keeping forces
in these areas in defensive positions, with the aim of providing the maximum
effort that they can in the Donbas region, the same official added.
Focussing
on the Donbas would allow Russia to concentrate air forces and indirect fire
into more limited areas, making it tougher for the Ukrainians, who had been
“remarkably adept” at using air defense capabilities, the official said. Recent
Ukrainian victories on the ground cannot be considered a “turning of the tide”
yet, they added.
Additional
reporting by Douglas Busvine.
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