Another Russian general was killed in Ukraine, Kiev says

Kiev said on Friday that a new Russian general had been killed during fighting in southern Ukraine, according to Oleksiï Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president.

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“Our troops (…) were killed in a bomb attack on the Chornobaivka airport in the Kherson region (south) by General Yakov Resantsev, commander of the 49th Army in the southern district of Russia,” Mr Arstovich said. A video message.

This is the sixth Russian general to be killed in Ukraine since the start of the war on February 24, according to Kiev, which has claimed responsibility for the deaths of generals Andrei Tsukovsky, Andrei Kolsnikov, Vitaly Kurosimov, Oleg Midyev and Andrei Mortvich.

Russia has so far only confirmed the deaths of General Andrei Sukhovsky, deputy commander of the 41st Army, and Captain Andrei Bali of the Black Sea Fleet No. 2 in Ukraine after serving in Syria in 2018-19.

“Another two-star general was killed on the Russian side today, the second in twelve days,” retired US General Mark Hertling told CNN on March 8, noting that the Russian military was “making mistakes again.” Unencrypted object “.

Rumors say other Russian officials have been killed, while Russian offensive observers say Moscow was far less effective than initially expected.

All the analysts consulted by the AFP came together on the surprising unpreparedness of the Russian military before the attack.

Alexander Grinberg, a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy (JISS), noted that although the circumstances of Curaao’s death were unknown, Sukhovsky was killed by a sniper.

“He was killed two days after the operation because no one in Russia really considered war,” he told the AFP.

“They thought it would be a police-like move to put a government loyal to Moscow instead of Zhelensky,” he added. “It is not possible for an officer in this position to be too close to a fight.”

Eli Dennembaum, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), believes that the presence of officials at this level “testifies to the fact that Moscow is” asking generals to be the leaders of their troops and to take risks. ” To compensate for the difficult moral situation of the troops.

Russia on Friday admitted killing 1,351 soldiers since the start of its military offensive in Ukraine.