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Ukraine: Yet Another Russian General Killed as Invasion Week Three Concludes

Posted on | March 16, 2022 | Comments Off on Ukraine: Yet Another Russian General Killed as Invasion Week Three Concludes

When last we checked in on Russia’s invasion, one of their tank columns was getting smashed east of Kyiv, killing a colonel, adding him to the stack of high-ranking Russians killed in Ukraine. That was Thursday and on Saturday, the Ukrainians announced they had killed Russian Maj. Gen. Andrei Kolesnikov in Mariupol, adding him to the previous Russian casualty total that included Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov and Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky. So that made three major generals killed in less than three weeks, and now the total has reached four:

Ukraine has killed another Russian general in a further “serious blow to the morale” of the invading forces, a government adviser said Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Oleg Mityaev died Tuesday during the storming of Ukraine’s most devastated city, Mariupol, according to Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko — who later posted a photo of the body.
Mityaev would be at least the fourth general killed during the invasion, which Kremlin officials are reportedly calling a complete “clusterf–k.”
Mityaev, 46, commanded the 150th Motorized Rifle Division and had fought in Syria, Gerashchenko said, saying his body was found with “the shoulder straps of a major general.”
He was “one of the most promising and iconic Russian military leaders,” claimed Gerashchenko as he celebrated “the liquidation of the general.”

This is a stunning death toll among Russian generals — four killed since the invasion began — and almost unheard of in modern warfare. While the Russians aren’t reporting their casualty totals, the Ukraine Defense Ministry claims they’ve killed nearly 14,000 Russian troops so far, although various Western analysts estimate that the true number is perhaps around half that high. Still, getting 7,000 troops killed — to say nothing of those wounded or taken prisoner, who must be added to Russia’s total losses in the Ukraine invasion — in just three weeks is a helluva high price to pay. How bad is it? Take a look at this drone video:

According to the Ukraine Defense Ministry, this shows the headquarters of Russia’s 35th Army near Kyiv being hit by Ukrainian artillery. The first question that comes to mind is, how the heck did the Russians allow enemy artillery within range of their headquarters? The second questions is, what kind of piss-poor opsec is it when you’re allowing enemy surveillance drones over your HQ? The shelling doesn’t appear to have been particularly devastating — no secondary explosions to show the Ukrainians had hit an ammo dump or anything — but the mere fact that they were able to get artillery within range of a Russian army headquarters speaks volumes for how badly it’s going for Russia.

More video evidence of Russian losses:

Of course, Russia has a lot of tanks and a lot of troops still capable of fighting in Ukraine, but the reported (or claimed, or estimated) level of losses is clearly high enough that Russia’s military commanders — those who aren’t dead yet, anyway — must be getting quite angry that Putin ordered this invasion, which has rapidly turned into a complete disaster.

(Hat-tip: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.)

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Category: Russia, Ukraine

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