A growing trend in Russia’s war in Ukraine, the seventh Russian general has been killed during the conflict.
According to reports, Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army, perished in a strike on his command post at Chirobayevka airfield in Kherson. An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the press that Gen. Rezantsev participated in the Siege of Mariupol, where Russian attacks have killed thousands of civilians. Rezantsev told his increasingly frustrated troops on the invasion’s fourth day that the war would be over quickly.
Though it’s unclear how Rezantsev met his demise, ret. U.S. Army General and public official David Petraeus recently described how Ukraine has managed to eliminate one-fourth of Russia’s frontline generals participating in the invasion:
“The communications have been jammed. The column gets stopped, and an impatient general goes forward to see what’s going on. There’s no initiative, no non-commissioned officer corps, no sense of initiative at junior levels. They wait to be told what to do, and the Ukrainians have very, very good snipers.”
A senior Pentagon official said Friday afternoon that Russian forces no longer fully occupy Kherson, with Ukrainian forces having pushed the front lines back into the city. The announcement contradicts Russia’s General Staff, which declared the strategically important port city remained under their “full control.”
Whatever the cause of this growing trend is, it’s clear that it is dealing a massive blow Putin’s efforts, and to the moral of Russian troops invading Ukraine.