The Russian colonel was beaten and killed by his own soldiers because of the huge death toll suffered by their own brigade in Ukraine, Western officials said on Friday. Officials identified the commander as Colonel Medvechek of the 37th Motorized Rifle Brigade, adding that the incident proved “the moral challenges facing Russian forces.” NATO officials estimate that up to 15,000 Russian soldiers may have been killed since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine a month ago. NATO also reports that a total of 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, wounded, captured or ignored. Western officials said they believed Colonel Medvechek had been “deliberately killed by his own troops” «as a” consequence of the scale of the casualties suffered by his brigade “. They added: “We really believe that he was defeated by his own troops. “When we think of operations, it is important not only to measure weapons systems and tanks, but also to think about the ethical and conceptual elements of combat power.”
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They added that they understood that the commander had been hit by a tank. However, on Friday night there were reports that the commander had survived and was taken to a Belarusian hospital for treatment. Earlier on Friday, further details emerged about a seventh Russian general believed to have been killed in action. Lieutenant General Yakov Rezanchev, 48, was killed in an attack by the Ukrainian armed forces, they say. He was Commander of the 49th Combined Army of the Southern Military District. The Russian side has not confirmed the death so far, but Western officials said Friday that they believed Lt. Gen. Rezantsev had been killed. As Russian forces now drop their “maximum” effort in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Western officials estimate that some 20 of the 120-150 Russian battalion groups available at the start of the offensive were no longer “effective.” in the battle”. “This means that they are being withdrawn for repair or reconstruction,” the officials explained. “Some groups have returned to Russia; some have just lost a huge number of people. “After a month we have one sixth, maybe one fifth of the force so that we are no longer militarily effective; that’s a pretty remarkable set of statistics.”
