New reports have shown that a third Russian general has been killed in Ukraine in eight days in another serious blow to Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s savage invasion of Ukraine.
Major General Andrei Kolesnikov of the 29th Combined Arms Army became the latest high profile casualty of the war today, the Ukraine’s government announced.
There are believed to be 20 Russian generals taking part in the invasion.
According to Daily Mail, Kolesnikov’s death comes four days after the killing of Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, 45, the first deputy commander of Russia’s 41st army.
The general took part in the second Chechen war, the Russian military operation in Syria and the annexation of Crimea, winning medals from those campaigns.
According to reports, Gerasimov was the son of Valery Gerasimov – the Chief of General Staff of Russia’s armed forces.
On February 27, Valery Gerasimov was pictured meeting Putin – sitting towards the end of a long table with Russian Défense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
And last week, Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, 47, deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District, was killed.
Sukhovetsky died during a special operation in Ukraine, his comrade-in-arms Sergey Chipilev wrote on social media, according to Pravda.ru.
Reports have said that Sukhovetsky was shot and killed by a sniper near Mariupol, which is under siege by Russian forces.
It comes as Russia continued their barbaric assault today by blowing up a disabled care home near the city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said, just 48 hours after shelling women as they gave birth in a maternity hospital.
Oleg Sinegubov, an official from Kharkiv which has been under siege by Russian forces for days, accused Putin’s men of committing a ‘war crime’ by launching air strikes against the facility in the town of Oskil which had 330 residents inside at the time the bombs hit.
Sinegubov said 63 care home residents have since been evacuated, but could not give an update on the other 267. Ten of those living at the home require wheelchairs, he said, while another 50 have reduced mobility. Ihor Terekhov, mayor of the city, said another 48 schools have been destroyed by Russian missiles.
Just 48 hours before the care home was destroyed, Russian jets had bombed a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol as women gave birth inside. The Kremlin has sought to paint those wounded in the attack as ‘crisis actors’ as part of a vile propaganda attempt to dismiss allegations its troops are attacking women and children.
Ukraine says Russian attacks have now killed more civilians than soldiers – without giving an exact figure for either – as the Kremlin’s generals pivot from shock-and-awe-style precision strikes to ‘medieval’ siege warfare. Dnipro, hundreds of miles to the south of Kharkiv, was hit by three strikes early Friday that damaged a kindergarten, a civilian apartment block, and a shoe factory – killing at least one person.
