ANOTHER Russian colonel is killed in Ukraine as Putin’s forces continue to lose battlefield top brass
- Mikhail Nagamov, 41, died fighting in Ukraine on April 13, Russia has confirmed
- Nagamov commanded a sapper regiment, and leaves behind a wife and child
- Putin has now lost dozens of colonels and eight generals in 55 days of fighting
- Death toll likely to rise in coming weeks, as battle of Donbas gets underway
Russia has lost another colonel as Ukraine continues to inflict punishing losses on Vladimir Putin’s top brass.
Mikhail Nagamov, 41, the commander of a sapper regiment, died fighting in Ukraine on April 13, according to articles that have appeared in Russian media.
It is not clear how or where exactly Nagamov died, with reports saying only that he perished ‘performing a combat mission in Ukraine’. He leaves behind a wife and child in the village of Suslonger, around 400 miles east of Moscow.
Nagamov’s death is just the latest suffered among Russia’s command corps, with dozens of colonels and eight generals having been killed by Ukraine.
Mikhail Nagamov, 41 (left and right), the commander of a sapper regiment, died fighting in Ukraine on April 13, officials in his home village of Suslonger have said
The country’s military claims to have killed almost 21,000 Russian soldiers since Putin gave the order to invade on February 24, along with hundreds of tanks and thousands of other vehicles.
Russia has also lost the warship Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, despite Ukraine not possessing a navy.
And the bloodletting is sure to ramp up again as Putin presses his generals back into battle in Ukraine’s east in an attempt to capture the Donbas region.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Russia had begun its assault on the region, amid a massive barrage of artillery along a 300-mile stretch of frontline near Donetsk and Luhansk and an uptick in fighting.
Ukraine reported battles around the city of Izyum, where Russia has massed most of its assault forces, as well as around Severodonetsk and Lysychans’k.
Kremmina, a small town to the north of Severodonetsk, was captured by Russian troops Tuesday when Ukrainian forces retreated because there was ‘nothing but rubble to defend’ after weeks of bombardment.
But Ukraine had counter-attacked elsewhere: Claiming to have re-taken the town of Marinka, near Donetsk, and seized towns to the east of Kharkiv – putting Russian supply lines under threat.
Nagamov’s death was announced just a day after a captain – Alexander Chirva, commander of a large landing ship – was confirmed to have died in Ukraine.
He was commander of the large, 370 ft landing ship Caesar Kunikov, which was thought to have been damaged during a Ukrainian missile attack on the port of Berdyansk on March 24.
The Kunikov’s sister landing ship the Orsk was hit and eventually sank while in port, having had its location advertised on Russian state propaganda.
It is thought that Chirva and his ship were involved in the rescue operation, with fire from the Orsk reportedly spreading to other vessels as well as an ammunition depot and a fuel terminal in the port.
The announcement follows the sinking of the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, Moskva, after it was hit by two Ukrainian Neptune missiles.
There is confusion over whether the Moskva’s captain, Captain Anton Kuprin, died during the sinking or not, with Ukraine initially reporting his death but Russian state television subsequently released a video purporting to show the surviving crew including Kuprin.
But the clip appears clumsily doctored, with the same sailors seeming to appear multiple times and the tree foliage suggesting the film was made at a different time of year. Yesterday, at the risk of being censured or even arrested, desperate parents of crew members broke their silence.
They fear the death toll from the Moskva is at least 40 and could be much higher. Western military sources have suggested it could be in the hundreds.
Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles fired by Ukraine struck the ship’s port side, targeting her engines and starting a propellant fuel fire.
Kyiv claims to have killed almost 21,000 Russian troops fighting in Ukraine since Putin declared the start of a ‘special military operation’ on February 24
Ukraine also claims to have destroyed hundreds of Russian tanks and thousands of other vehicles, putting large parts of Putin’s army out of action
In the wake of disastrous Moskva sinking, the head of the Black Sea Fleet Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, is believed to have been suspended or detained or both.
On March 20, it became known that Deputy Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Captain 1st Rank Andrei Paliy, 51, had died in Ukraine.
He was killed during the battles for Mariupol.
The latest losses of the Russian Armed Forces in the war in Ukraine puts the number of personnel killed at breaching 20,00, and mindboggling quantities of materiel.
Russian hardware has taken a pummeling from Western shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapons such as Javellin missiles and the British-made NLAW that have been pouring into the wartorn country to help Ukraine repel the Russian aggressors.
802 tanks are claimed to have been destroyed, 169 aircraft, 150 helicopters, 158 UAVs, 386 artillery systems, and a mammoth 2063 armoured personnel vehicles.
Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that Ukraine has lost 23,367 soldiers including mercenaries during the war.
Russia’s fallen generals
General Magomed Tushaev: Chechen special forces leader who had led ‘anti-gay purges’ killed in an ambush near Hostomel on February 26
Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky: Deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District killed during a special operation by a sniper on March 4
General Magomed Tushaev (right) was blown up in the early stages of the war by Ukraine after they joined the Russian invasion
Major General Vitaly Gerasimov: First deputy commander of Russia’s 41st army who took part in operations in Syria and Crimea, killed in fighting around Kharkiv on March 8
Major General Andrei Kolesnikov: Commander of the 29th Combined Army Army killed on March 11
Major General Vitaly Gerasimov (left) was first deputy commander of Russia’s 41st army, taking part in operations in Syria and Crimea. He was killed in fighting around Kharkiv on March 8
Major-General Oleg Mityaev, died fighting near the city of Mariupol on 16 March
Lt-Gen Andrey Mordvichev, killed in the Kherson region on March 19
Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev, commander of Russia’s 49th combined army, was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson on March 25
Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev , commander of Russia’s 49th combined army. He was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson on March 25
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