Another Russian Colonel, the ninth one, was killed about 90 miles from Kyiv as his engineers were attempting to build a critical pontoon bridge over the Desna River that would give them access into Chernihiv, Ukraine. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Kornik had claimed the war would be over within hours. But he was wrong, dead wrong.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top military people have been reluctant to give him a true picture of how poorly his military has been doing during the attack on Ukraine. It has been a serious “strategic miscalculation.” But the Russian president appears to have a “kill the messenger” mentality.
The Ukrainians shelled Kornik’s soldiers leaving eight dead and another 17 injured. The 39-year-old colonel was killed along with those he was commanding. He was the Chief of Staff of the 40th Engineer Regiment.
Six of the fallen soldiers’ bodies could not be retrieved, because they toppled into the river, and its strong current pulled them away, according to a top Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk.
Kyiv announced that nicknamed “Fearless” Colonel Denis Kurilo had lost approximately 1,500 troops in his brigade alone out of the total 17,200 total deaths, according to The Standard. Reports claimed that he was “liquidated” or “eliminated” by the Ukrainians.
Putin has not formally announced his death, but photos of his funeral were found online. Then again, Putin has only claimed one death among his generals.
NATO officials estimated, according to The Standard:
‘[As] many as 15,000 Russian troops may have been killed since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine a month ago. NATO is also reported to estimate that in total 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, injured, captured, or gone missing.’
By March 25, seven Russian commanders had already been killed, according to The KYIV Independent.
Another leader apparently died in a case of friendly fire. Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev’s men ran over him with a tank out of anger, because so many fellow soldiers had been killed (KIA) or wounded (WIA) in action, The Times reported. Ukrainian forces have also claimed the deaths of the following top-level Russian leaders, the Evening Standard reported:
- Lieutenant-Colonel Dmitry Dormidontov
- Major General Vitaly Gerasimov
- Major General Andrei Kolesnikov
- Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Kornik
- “Fearless” Colonel Denis Kurilo was “liquidated” by the Ukrainians
- Major General Oleg Mityaev
- Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev (crushed under a tank by his own men)
- Lieutenant-Colonel Dmitry Pavlovich
- Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev
- Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky
- Lieutenant-Colonel Igor Zharov
Advisor to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky Oleksiy Arestvych said:
‘The battalion tactical group of the 200th of a separate motorised (English spelling rifle brigade, which took part in the “special military operation” on the territory of Ukraine, suffered significant losses in manpower.
‘Of the 648 servicemen who were sent, 645 died. Only three remained, and then two of them were wounded.’
Five years ago, Kurilo was blocked from entering Ukraine, because he was caught moving classified information inside of military training manuals. He was accused at the time of supervising the “training of gangs in the occupied territories of Ukraine.”
Those manuals were important how-to military directions, The Standard reported:
‘They included blasting and de-mining instructions and guides on installing heavy machine guns on vehicles, as well as the construction of fortifications and defensive structures.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
Three White Lions is Gloria Christie’s new serialized book available in episodes on Amazon. Go to Kindle Vella and insert her name. She also writes for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
