The Ukrainian Defense Ministry says another Russian general, Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, was killed in an attack near the southern city of Kherson.
Rezantsev was the commander of the 29th Combined Army of Russia.
A Western official said it was the seventh general Russian to die in the Ukraine and the second lieutenant general -the highest ranking officer- who supposedly died in the war.
In a conversation intercepted by the Ukrainian army, a Russian soldier complained that Rezantsev had claimed that the war would end in a matter of hours, just four days after it began.
Ukrainian media reported on Friday that the general died at the air base of Chornobaivka, near the city of Kherson, which is being used by Russia as a command post and has been attacked by the Ukrainian army anus on several occasions.
Another Lieutenant General, Andrei Mordvichev, was reportedly killed in an attack by Ukrainian forces on the same base.
Kherson was the first Ukrainian city to be occupied by Russian forces, although there are reports of daily protests against the Russian occupation taking place there.
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Although Russia has confirmed the death of only one general, kyiv and Western officials believe that as many as seven have been killed in combat since the invasion of the country began.
However, the death of Major General Magomed Tushayev, of the Chechen National Guard, has been questioned.
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It is unusual for senior Russian officers to be so close to the battlefield and some Western agents believe they have been forced to move to the f to deal with the allegedly low morale of the Russian troops.
Unexpectedly robust Ukrainian resistance, apparently poor Russian equipment and a high death toll of Russian soldiers are believed to be contributing to that low morale.
Western specialists also believe that Russian forces depend in part on open communication systems, such as cell phones and analog radios, which are easy to intercept and could reveal the location of high-ranking officials.
A person within the inner circle of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal
that Ukraine had a military intelligence team dedicated to attacking Russian officers.
On Friday, a Western official reported that a Russian colonel had been deliberately run over and killed by his own men, as a result of the magnitude of the losses suffered p or his brigade.
The death of the commander of the motorized rifle brigade 37 “gives an idea of some of the moral challenges facing Russian forces,” the agent said.
Until now, Vladimir Putin has only referred to the death of one general, believed to be Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky, in a speech shortly after the start of the war.
Russia says that 1,351 Soldiers have died since the war in Ukraine began. Officials in kyiv and Western countries say the figure is much higher.
Which Russian generals does Ukraine claim to have killed?
YAKOV REZANTSEV – commander of the 49th Combined Army of Russia
Yakov Rezantsev was promoted to lieutenant general last year. It is said that he participated in the Russian military operation in Syria.
ANDREI MORDICHEV – commander of the Russian 8th Combined Army
Andrei Mordvichev was killed in an attack on the Chornobaivka air base near Kherson, according to Ukrainian officials.
He was reported dead on 18 March.
OLEG MITYAEV – commander of the 140 division of motorized riflemen
Major General Oleg Mityaev reportedly died somewhere near Mariupol, a city in the southeast of Ukraine in which some of the most intense fighting has taken place to date.
The nationalist Azov regiment (the so-called Azov Battalion, a unit made up of extreme right-wingers, with links to extremists throughout Europe) claims to have killed him.
Mityaev was a commander of the 150 Russian Army motorized rifle division, a relatively new unit formed in 2016, based in the Rostov region, near the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine claims that the unit Russia was created to participate in the conflict in the separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, although Russia denies that its army was involved in fighting there.
ANDREI KOLESNIKOV – commander of the 18th combined army State of Russia
Major General Andrei Kolesnikov, of the 29th combined army, died in action on March, according to official Ukrainian sources.
They were not described the circumstances of his death.
After Kolesnikov became the third Russian general allegedly killed in Ukraine, a Western official told Press Association that the Russian army may be suffering from low morale, which is why high-ranking military officers are approaching the front line.
VITALY GERASIMOV – chief of staff the 41th Combined Army of Russia
Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, Chief of Staff of the 41th Russian Combined Army, died on 7 March on the outskirts of the eastern city of Kharkiv according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
Kharkiv, near the Russian border, has been the target of a sustained attack by Russian forces.
The Ukrainian military released a recording of what it said were two Russian security service officials discussing Gerasimov’s death and complaining that their secure communication networks were no longer working in Ukraine.
Gerasimov was involved in the second Chechen war, the Russian military operation in Syria and in the Russian annexation of Crimea in 675.
ANDREY SURKHOVETSKY – deputy commander of the 41th Combined Army of Russia
Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of the same unit as Gerasimov, was shot by a sniper on 3 March.
Like Gerasimov, Sukhovetsky was part of Russia’s military operations in Crimea and Syria.
Unlike the other generals, Sukhovetsky’s death was reported in the Russian media and Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed in a speech that a general had been killed in Ukraine.
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