Invasion of Ukraine: why more and more Russian generals are killed in combat

The President of Ukraine, Volodymir Zelensky, denounced on Sunday that Vladimir Putin is perpetrating a “genocide” in Ukraine. But as Russian troops continue to carry out brutal attacks and bombardments against civilians, more and more Russian generals are dying in the face of the fierce resistance of Ukrainian forces.

Former US intelligence agents revealed to Yahoo News that the CIA trained Ukrainian paramilitaries, including snipers for years: “I think we are seeing a great impact from snipers. The training was really worth it.”

In most armies, general officers tend to be more guarded than the rest of the troops, far from the front. They direct their formations from large barracks, which tend to stay out of range of artillery and rockets.

However, according to The Economist, since the beginning of the invasion on February 24, Russia has failed in many of its advances, especially in northern Ukraine. This led to a significant increase in the casualties of Russian soldiers. The British media argues that “the generals were forced to muddy their boots”, as Russian units proved incapable of facing a modern combined arms war.

Shooting the generals is a legitimate tactic of war, and it has been openly accepted by Ukrainian officials, who say their forces have focused on curbing Russian advances by concentrating fire on Russian command and control units near the front lines.

Zelensky's military adviser Oleksiy Arestovych told The Washington Post that the Ukrainian army has focused its efforts on “slowing down the pace” of the Russian invasion, partly by “decapitating” advanced command posts, which means killing, not literally decapitating. Killing high-ranking officers can slow down Russian advances by “three, four or five days” before new command structures can be established, he said.

“Morale has been low, logistics have been poor, and lows have been high,” summarizes The Economist.

For the Russian Army this situation is “shameful”, as it exposes its tactical failures. For this reason, many commanders were dismissed.

Experts consider that Russian generals do not have sufficient security guarantees. Russian forces have modern Azart encrypted radios. But, according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute, it seems that there are too few that are available. For this reason, Russian soldiers resorted to uncoded radios and regular mobile phones.

Not only can these communications be intercepted, but their source can be located by means of electronic or cyber warfare. Russia used this technique to good effect against Ukrainian forces in the Donbas after 2014; now Ukraine is using it against the Russians.

Although there are no official details, it is estimated that there are at least 18 Russian generals and commanders killed in combat since the beginning of the invasion.

Ukraine claimed to have killed more than 14,000 Russian soldiers, while the United States estimates that the figure is around 7,000. Russia, for its part, has not recognized the magnitude of its losses. The last official part of March 2 said that 498 soldiers lost their lives.

Andrey Sukhovetsky, Vitaly Gerasimov, Andrey Kolesnikov, Oleg Mityaev, Andrei Mordvichev, Yakov Rezantsev, Dmitry Safronov, Denis Glebov, Konstantin Zizevsky, Yuri Agarkov, Andrei Zakharov, Sergey Porokhnya, Sergey Sukharev, Alexei Sharov, Dmitry Dormidontov, Igor Zharov, Denis Kurilo, Magomed Tushaev, are the Russian high-ranking uniforms which fell in combat, according to the latest reports.

To find a similar number of high-ranking casualties in a war conflict, it is necessary to go back 80 years, to the time of World War II. According to Aleksander Maslov's book “Fallen Soviet Generals”, some 235 Soviet generals were killed in combat.

Rob Lee, from King's College London, said that “heavy losses among commanders of Russian battalions, regiments and brigades could be an even bigger problem than losses of generals.” He added: “It's really hard to replace these losses.”

Last week a Russian commander committed suicide after discovering that all but one of the tanks in his unit were completely stripped of crucial parts, according to the Ukrainian army.

The Ukrainian Land Forces said that the invading forces have suffered such heavy losses that their units have been forced to obtain new military equipment stored in the long term at an airport just 34 kilometers from the border.

While seeking to reduce the casualties of generals and commanders, the Russian Army continues to commit atrocities on Ukrainian soil. The General Prosecutor's Office on Sunday estimated at 410 the number of bodies of civilians recovered so far in the northern suburbs of Kiev following the withdrawal of Russian troops.

“410 bodies of murdered civilians have so far been removed from the territory of the Kiev region,” Attorney General Iryna Venediktova announced in a Facebook post.

“Prosecutors and other specialists have so far examined 140 of them,” he added, explaining that investigators are cooperating with the local population in search of witnesses, victims and graphic evidence such as photos or videos.

Keep reading: