In the Ukraine conflict, Vladimir Putin has lost his second colonel in a single day.
Colonel Sergei Krasnikov, 56, was killed in an ambush while on a reconnaissance mission. He was a well-known action man who had parachuted to the North Pole.
According to sources, he was a trained paratrooper who had switched careers in the criminal justice system before enlisting to serve in the Russian army in Ukraine.
Krasikov has previously served as the head coach of Russia’s national parachuting team.
In a combat in the village of Ternove, Kharkiv region, he perished as the volunteer commander of an invading mortar crew.
He was a colonel in the Investigative Committee, which is regarded as the FBI’s counterpart.
Colonel Sergei Postnov, who was in his 40s at the time of his death, was previously revealed to have died.
As a result of the losses, Putin has now witnessed the deaths of 54 verified colonels in Ukraine, a startling figure that likely underestimates the full extent of the losses among these high-ranking officers.
In addition, Putin has lost at least 11 generals.
Russia, like Ukraine, had neglected to divulge the full extent of its casualties in the grueling conflict.
Postnov was a member of the Russian National Guard’s military propaganda unit, which reported directly to Putin.
He had been serving with Russian soldiers in Kyiv, in Kharkiv, and most recently in the Luhansk region.
He was assassinated in an unknown manner and location.
His life was ‘cut short’ while on a mission in Ukraine, according to an official statement.
From the start of Putin’s active campaign on February 24, he had ‘executed service and combat operations in the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine,’ according to the report.
‘High professionalism, organization, and diligence, as well as an innovative approach to issue solutions,’ claimed the Russian Interior Ministry’s veterans council.
In 1997, he graduated from Yekaterinburg’s Suvorov Military School.
The deaths are the latest in a long line of Russian high-ranking officials who have perished in Putin’s campaign in Ukraine.
The total number of Russians killed is estimated to be in the thousands.
Postnov is survived by his widow Ekaterina and their daughter.
As Russia gains ground in the Donbas, Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical factory in Severodonetsk have been urged to lay down their rifles and surrender.
After fleeing a Russian bombardment, more than 500 people and an undetermined number of military are trapped inside the Azot plant.
Ukraine should’stop their useless resistance and lay down guns,’ according to Mikhail Mizintsev, the chairman of Russia’s National Defense Management Centre.
The Russian defense ministry declared the creation of a humanitarian corridor for evacuations from the plant, stating that it will be “guided by the principles of compassion.”
According to Moscow, evacuees will be moved to the city of Svatovo in the separatist-controlled territory of Lugansk.
Kyiv did not respond to the declaration, and Volodymyr Zelensky bemoaned ‘sad deaths’ in the ongoing conflict in a video address Tuesday evening.
‘However, we must maintain our resolve.’ This is our country… It’s critical to stay put in Donbas. The outcome of the Donbas conflict will determine who will rule in the next weeks.’
The population in Azot ‘can no longer tolerate it in the shelters, their psychological state is on edge,’ according to Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai.
He claimed that Russia now controls 80% of Severodonetsk and that mass evacuations are “just not doable.”
Capturing Severodonetsk has become a top priority since it will open the way to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two large cities.
A total of 12,000 civilians are anticipated to remain in the 100,000-person metropolis.
In the meantime, Vladimir Putin has lost his 53rd colonel in the war, the latest setback in his ruthless assault.
According to sources, Colonel Sergei Postnov was killed on a military assignment earlier this week.
He was a member of the Russian National Guard’s military propaganda unit, which reported directly to Putin.
He had been serving with Russian soldiers in Kyiv, in Kharkiv, and most recently in the Luhansk region.
His life was ‘cut short’ while on a mission in Ukraine, according to an official statement.
From the start of Putin’s active campaign, he had ‘executed service and combat missions in the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine.’
‘High professionalism, organization, and diligence, as well as an innovative approach to issue solutions,’ claimed the Russian Interior Ministry’s veterans council.
He was a 1997 graduate of the Yekaterinburg Suvorov Military School and was in his 40s, according to reports. He is survived by his widow Ekaterina and their children.
His death was the latest in a long line of Russian high-ranking officials who have died as a result of Putin’s conflict in Ukraine.
He is the 53rd colonel to be known to have died, with at least 11 generals being killed.
The total number of Russians killed is estimated to be in the thousands.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg encouraged Western countries to deploy more heavy arms to Ukraine, saying that they ‘absolutely depend on it to be able to stand up against the barbaric Russian assault.’
He told a press conference after meeting with the leaders of seven European NATO members that NATO officials would meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss organizing additional support, including heavy armaments.
Meanwhile, Zelensky told reporters that he regretted what he called “certain leaders’ constrained behavior,” which he claimed had “significantly slowed down arms supply.”
Ukraine has only received 10% of the weapons it requested from the West, according to Kyiv’s deputy defense minister.
Valentina, a Lysychansk retiree, sat on the veranda of her ground-floor flat, her two walking sticks in hand.
‘It’s terrifying,’ the 83-year-old former farm laborer remarked.
‘Why can’t they just shake hands and agree, for God’s sake?’
Ukrainian forces were delivering more weapons systems to the front along the road from Lysychansk to Kramatorsk, while specialist vehicles carried tanks for repair.
The stench of burning and smoke from houses that had been devastated by fire from shelling at the weekend lingered in Novodruzhesk, a town near Lysychansk.
‘It’s not safe anyplace; it just depends on the time of day,’ said a soldier with a skull emblem on his sleeve standing outside a fire station.
Russia announced the blacklisting of 49 British citizens, including defence officials and famous reporters and editors from the BBC, The Financial Times, and The Guardian, as tensions with the West rise.
The journalists targeted, according to the Russian foreign ministry, were “engaged in the deliberate dissemination of incorrect and one-sided material.”
A senior UN official advised Tuesday in New York that Ukrainian children should not be adopted in Russia, where tens of thousands of children are estimated to have been relocated since Moscow’s invasion in February.
Asfhan Khan, UNICEF’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, told reporters, “We’re stressing, including to the Russian Federation, that adoption should never occur during or immediately after emergencies.”
Khan noted that such youngsters cannot be assumed to be orphans and that their journey must be voluntary.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin claimed it had not received a request from London to intercede in the case of two Britons sentenced to death in eastern Ukraine by pro-Moscow rebel authorities.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic found Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, as well as Moroccan Brahim Saadun, guilty of operating as mercenaries for Ukraine.