A Russian brigade commander in Ukraine has died after being run down with a tank by his own mutinous troops, it was revealed today.
Western officials believe Colonel Yuri Medvedev was brutally taken out after his 37th Motor Rifle Brigade suffered huge losses.
A lieutenant general commanding the 49th Combined Arms Army has also died in the fighting – the seventh to perish in the war.
News of Colonel Medvedev’s fate – backed by recent footage of the extraordinary episode – came amid claims that 20 of the 120 battalions massed by Vladimir Putin have been rendered inoperative by Ukraine’s staunch resistance.
However, Putin is said to be assembling at least 10 more to shore up his army, with officials warning that shows he is going ‘all in’ behind his ‘botched’ invasion – and could be preparing to launch a chemical attack to turn the tide.
A Western official said Russia’s failure to organise so far has been ‘remarkable’, pouring scorn on claims today that it had achieved the main military objectives.
They said that losses had been ‘really high’ in some areas. At the outset 115-120 battalion tactical groups were in the Russian force, but 20 battalions were now not thought to be ‘combat effective’ and had been withdrawn, either because repairs were needed to vehicles or because of massive losses.
In some instances three battalions had been merged together to redeploy.
The official said of Colonel Medvedev: ‘He was killed by his own troops we believe as a consequence of the scale of losses that had been taken by his brigade,’ they added. ‘That gives an insight into some of the morale challenges the Russian forces are having.’
The official added that the colonel appeared to have been run down using a tank. ‘We believe he was killed by his own troops deliberately,’ they said.
The comments came after footage allegedly showed Colonel Medvedev being stretchered into a hospital after suffering severe injuries to his legs.
The episode has echoes of ‘Fragging’ during the Vietnam War – when soldiers would take out hated officers by throwing grenades into their tents.
Western officials said Putin appears to be generating 10 more battalion tactical groups ‘maybe more’ to shore up his forces, in a sign that the Russian dictator is going ‘all in’.
‘If we think that 115-120 plus at least another 10 maybe more come in, that’s a pretty significant slice of the Russian combat mass being taken for this operation.
‘It does give the indication of how ‘all-in’ Putin is in terms of this operation.’
There are rising concerns that an increasingly desperate Russia could use chemical weapons.
Western officials believe Russia would try to organise a ‘chemical false flag operation’.
‘If they still run true to type I expect it to be pretty well botched,’ the official said adding that NATO should be able to ‘expose the truth of what happens’.
Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that Colonel Medvedev’s tank battalion of 1,500 troops had lost around half its strength to either death or injury.
‘A soldier, choosing a convenient moment during the battle, ran over his brigade commander, Colonel Yuri Medvedev, with a tank, injuring both his legs,’ Tsimbalyuk wrote in his report to his followers.
‘Medvedev is in a hospital in Belarus and has already been awarded the Order of Courage.’ He said the Colonel is now awaiting compensation.
There was no independent corroboration of the claim, but a video released by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov – a close ally of Vladimir Putin – allegedly showed Medvedev being transported by medical troops to Belarus for hospital treatment.
One Chechen fighter – who are fighting under the Russian National Guard and directly under Putin’s control – told him: ‘Hold on…how are you? OK? Talk to us…
Medvedev replied: ‘I’m OK. Where are you from?’
The colonel was then told to keep wearing his bulletproof jacket, before being unloaded on a stretcher, with blankets covering his legs.
Tsimbalyuk did not say what happened to the soldier driving the tank, but the report follows several others suggesting low morale among Putin’s forces who have been making little progress in Ukraine.
NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where ferocious fighting by the country’s fast-moving defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.
By way of comparison, Moscow lost about 15,000 soldiers in Afghanistan over 10 years.
A senior NATO military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian officials, what Russia has released – intentionally or not – and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.
When Russia unleashed its invasion February 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s democratically elected government seemed likely.
But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Russia is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.
Source: DailyMail
