A report on Friday claimed that a Russian brigade commander was killed by his own men after his unit suffered heavy losses at the hands of Ukrainian resistance.
“A Russian brigade commander has been killed deliberately by his own troops after his unit suffered many losses in Ukraine,” Sky News reporter Deborah Haynes reported. “Colonel Medvechek, commander of 37 Motor Rifle Brigade, was run over by his soldiers.”
BREAKING: A Russian brigade commander has been killed deliberately by his own troops after his unit suffered many losses in Ukraine, a western official said.
Colonel Medvechek, commander of 37 Motor Rifle Brigade, was run over by his soldiers, the official said— Deborah Haynes
“The brigade commander of one of the units was killed by his own troops…we believe, as a consequence of the scale of loss that had been taken by his brigade,” a Western official reportedly Haynes.
“That just gives an insight into perhaps some of the morale challenges that Russian forces are having,” she added.
“We believe he was killed by his own troops deliberately,” the official reportedly added. “Indeed we believe he was run over by his own troops and I believe he was the commander of the 37 Motor Rifle Brigade.”
According to Reuters, using claims from Ukrainian officials, as many as six Russian generals have been killed during the war, along with dozens of colonels and other officers.
Meanwhile, NATO revealed this week that it believes that the Russian military has likely suffered as many as 40,000 casualties during its invasion of Ukraine, which began one month ago.
“The figure — which includes troops that have been killed, wounded, taken prisoner, or are missing in action — was calculated using figures provided by Ukraine, information obtained from Russia, and intelligence from open sources,” The Daily Wire reported.
The senior NATO official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that it’s like that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops have died, and that the 30,000-40,000 estimate on casualties are “based on the assumption that for every soldier killed, three are wounded,” The Washington Post reported.
“Death tolls have been hard for independent observers to verify during the conflict, with the fog of war making solid information difficult to obtain and the ferocity of the conflict impeding efforts to count the dead. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 1,300 members of the Ukrainian forces have been killed, but The Washington Post has been unable to verify that figure,” the paper added.
“Russia has not updated its official figure of 498 dead and 1,597 wounded since announcing it one week into the invasion.”