As Russia’s top brass continues to be obliterated by US-made weapons, two of Putin’s top pilots were killed in Ukraine by a HIMARS missile.
On July 8, near Donetsk, a motorcade carrying a 41-year-old fighter pilot with the rank of lieutenant colonel was struck by a precision-guided rocket artillery strike.
Also a fighter pilot, Colonel Anatoly Stasyukevich, 54, is believed to have perished in the same incident.
The cops’ killings were well known, but Potyomin’s father Alexey didn’t announce that HIMARS was responsible until this past weekend.
It’s believed that Western intelligence helped carry out the strike.
The automobile of my son was struck by a HIMARS missile, Mr. Potyomin, the head of the Volgograd Regional Parachuting Federation, informed the local media.
Along with Potyomin and Stasyukevich, Lieutenant-Colonel Sergei Mikhaylov, 42, who oversaw a motorised rifle unit, was also killed in Ukraine.
Potyomin, who was married and had two children—a 15-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter—was posthumously given the order of courage by the Kremlin, which honours bravery and valour displayed in the service of others.
His godmother, Natalya Duddinka, expressed her “great, enormous anguish” on his passing and remarked, “Words cannot describe this pain.”
Third generation military pilot Stasyukevich served as chief of staff for the 1st Guards Baranovichi Red Banner mixed aviation division.
He was a pilot in the same Krasnodar region unit as Potyomin, headquartered in Krymsk.
The trio’s demise is the most recent among Russia’s military elite to be brought about by HIMARS, a precision rocket artillery system that the US provided to Ukraine and that entered the fray around a month ago.
The weapons have been used by Kyiv’s soldiers to attack out-of-reach Russian command headquarters and ammunition stockpiles located far beyond the frontlines.
Since he had been informed that Russia’s most advanced missile defences could shoot the missiles down, Putin is alleged to have been incensed by their effectiveness.
The S-400 system has so far offered scant to no defence against them.
In the eastern Donbas region, enormous explosions have been brought on by nighttime missile assaults on ammunition storage facilities.
Meanwhile, attacks on command posts are alleged to have killed one general and scores of Russian officers at a time.
Off the back of the strikes, Russia’s effort in the Donbas has drawn to a virtual halt as it cannot carry off the enormous artillery barrages attributed for earlier success.
According to NASA data, the amount of artillery utilised in the Donbas has significantly decreased over the past two weeks, although Putin’s forces have made virtually little territorial advances.
As a result, Ukrainian troops have been made available for operations elsewhere, particularly in the south around Kherson, where a significant counterattack is being planned.
As Ukrainian attacks increase, so do Russian casualties; according to Telegram channel General SVR, which has been covering the conflict extensively, Putin has lost 56,500 men in five months of warfare.
43,000 regular Russian soldiers, 11,400 private military contractors, and an additional 2,000 members of the National Guard are also included in those numbers.
If true, that would indicate that since Putin’s “special operation” began in February, about one-third of Russia’s military personnel have died in combat.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the British Armed Forces, has asserted that Russia has lost 50,000 soldiers to the conflict.
But that number includes both the deceased and the injured. Only deaths are included in the revised figure.
Putin’s capacity to wage war in the future would be severely hampered by the increased death toll, which would also indicate an even higher number of wounded.