Sergei Sukharev, one of Putin’s top paratrooper commanders has been killed on the Ukraine front as Russia’s elite fighters face a battlefield massacre.
Moscow state television confirmed the death of Colonel Sergei Sukharev, of the Kostroma Guards 331st Parachute Assault Regiment.
Previously, the “liquidation” of him had been claimed by the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security of Ukraine.
“The commander of the Kostroma Airborne Regiment, Colonel Sergei Sukharev… got lost in the ‘[military] exercises,’ but he returned home the right way,” the Ukrainian statement says.
His deputy, Major Sergei Krylov, was killed alongside him, according to the report.
They were among a number killed from the “glorious” Kostroma regiment, seen as one of Russia’s most elite fighting forces.
In the latest Russian setback, footage showed the moment a column of Russian tanks is destroyed by a Ukrainian ambush near Kyiv.
Moscow forces were said to be advancing rapidly towards Brovary, a large eastern suburb of Kyiv, in what is believed to be the start of an attempt to seize the city.
But video taken from a Ukrainian drone shows tanks shelled with artillery in the devastating ambush and forced back.