Russia has lost three senior commanders including one of its highest-ranked officers as they attempted to give “impetus” to the stalled offensive, western officials have said.
Two generals and a colonel have died on the front line, giving validity to Ukraine military reports of high numbers of Russian deaths and desertions.
A senior official also warned the Russians not to repeat the “risk and recklessness” shown by troops in conducting artillery strikes against a nuclear power plant on Friday.
In a briefing to media, the western source said the deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army had been killed by sniper fire alongside a divisional commander and a regimental commander.
“My assessment would be that those commanders have been killed because they've had to go further and closer to the front,” he said.
“Commanders feel they have to move further forward to get greater impetus and control over operations.
“I think that's an indication of frustration, lack of progress and they're trying to impose their personality on to the battlefield, putting themselves at personal risk.”
Asked by The National if he was surprised by the fatalities of such senior officers only a week into the war, the security official said that commanders clearly felt it was necessary to intervene in failing Russian attacks.
“It has stalled in some areas so badly that I'm unsurprised that commanders have felt the need to go forward to bring some impetus to operations.”
Only one American general was killed during the wars following 9/11 by an Afghan soldier inside a US base in 2014.
The deaths of senior officers are an indication of the difficulties the Russians are facing from the ferocious Ukrainian defence.
There are several problems in terms of logistics, engineering and air support as well as flawed leadership that is having a “psychological impact” on troops, the official said.
The combined-arms attacks from several directions exposed Russia’s command and control fragility and proved “beyond the scale of that which they have trained for”.
-
A Ukrainian serviceman stands near captured Russian tanks, one painted in the colours of the Ukrainian national flag and the other marked with the letter 'Z' in the north of the Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Reuters -
Russian military vehicles with the letter 'Z' painted on them. Reuters -
French Air Force jets patrol airspace over Poland. Nicolas Tucat / AFP -
The patrol is part of Nato's surveillance system. Photo by Nicolas Tucat / AFP -
The German-flagged 'Seacod' oil tanker moored at Birkenhead Docks near the Stanlow Oil Refinery in the UK. -
A woman holds the hand of a child as they flee Ukraine. AP Photo / Markus Schreiber -
A young woman clutches a doll as she crosses the border in Medyka, Poland. AP Photo / Markus Schreiber -
A woman weeps after finding a friend at the border crossing in Medyka. AP Photo / Markus Schreiber -
People walk with their belongings as they flee Ukraine. AP Photo / Markus Schreiber -
Ukrainian refugees arrive at Berlin central station, Germany, from Poland on March 4. EPA / Filip Singer -
Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24, prompting the country's president to declare martial law and triggering a series of announcements by western countries to impose severe economic sanctions on Russia. EPA / Filip Singer -
Military vessels docked at the military harbour of Constanta, Romania, on March 4. Daniel Mihailescu / AFP -
A child plays with a pigeon during a protest in San Jose, Costa Rica, against the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Ezequiel Becerra / AFP -
Ukrainian citizens in San Jose, Costa Rica, protest against the Russian invasion in Ukraine on March 4. Ezequiel Becerra / AFP -
People fleeing Ukraine wait to board a bus in Palanca Village, Moldova. EPA / Dumitru Doru -
Ukrainians living in Britain join a protest at Trafalgar Square, London. EPA / Andy Rain -
Ludmila Shkarupa, 73, from Ukraine, sits on a chair wrapping herself with a sleeping bag to avoid the cold at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. AP -
A view shows a thermal power plant destroyed by shelling amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region. Reuters -
People fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine use mobile devices in a temporary refugee centre located at a local track-and-field athletics stadium in Chisinau, Moldova. Reuters -
A local resident walks past the remains of a house of culture following a night air raid in the village of Byshiv, 40 kilometres west of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
A member of the Ukrainian military guards an evacuation train of women and children who fled fighting in Bucha and Irpin. Getty Images -
A member of the Ukrainian military gives instructions to women and children that fled fighting in Bucha and Irpin before boarding an evacuation train to Kyiv after heavy fighting overnight forced many to leave their homes. Getty Images -
A person demonstrates outside the Russian embassy in London following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reuters -
The Danish rescue group Falck A/S has donated 30 ambulances to Ukraine and neighbouring countries, where they will be used by local emergency services. AFP -
An aerial view of the remains of the local house of culture following a night air raid in the village of Byshiv, 40 kilometres west of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
People fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine rest in a temporary refugee centre located at a local track-and-field athletics stadium in Chisinau, Moldova. Reuters -
Ukrainian Oleg, who decided to remain in Irpin, comforts his son, Maksim, and his wife, Yana, before the arrival of an evacuation train to the city of Kyiv. EPA -
Yevghen Zbormyrsky, 49, runs in front of his burning house after being shelled in the city of Irpin, outside Kyiv. AFP -
People remove personal belongings from a burning house after being shelled in Irpin. AFP -
Medical workers tend to a Ukrainian serviceman wounded during the fighting with Russian troops near the Ukrainian capital, in a hospital in Kyiv. AFP -
A mother of a wounded Ukrainian serviceman waits outside his ward in a hospital in Kyiv. AFP -
Refugees from Ukraine arrive at an assistance point organised in the sports hall of a primary school in Lubycza Krolewska in Poland. EPA -
A member of Ukraine's Territorial Defence Forces at a checkpoint in Kyiv. Reuters -
People carry their belongings past the debris of last week's combat in Kyiv. AFP -
Shelves in a supermarket stand empty in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine. Reuters -
War refugees from Ukraine at the assistance point organised at the Torwar sports hall in Warsaw, Poland. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen, wounded during the fighting with Russian troops near the Ukrainian capital, rest outside a hospital in Kyiv. AFP -
A 3-year-old boy watches cartoons on a tablet while his mother sews military vests for the Ukrainian army in the western city of Lviv. AFP -
A woman's shock as she stands in front of a house burning after being shelled in Irpin, outside Kyiv. AFP -
People fleeing from Ukraine queue to board on a bus at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. AP -
Ukrainian refugees are tested for Covid-19 in a reception centre in Vienna, Austria. AFP -
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg pose with foreign ministers after a meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Reuters -
People who fled Ukraine wait for a bus to take them to the train station in Przemysl, at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. AP Photo -
The extraordinary meeting of Nato ministers of foreign affairs about Russian aggression in Ukraine at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. EPA -
Messages in support of Ukraine on a board in the Ukrainian pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. AFP -
Firefighters at a warehouse that caught fire after shelling in the village of Chaiky in the Kyiv region. Reuters -
The wreckage of a missile at a bus terminal in Kyiv. Reuters -
A crater in front of a house damaged by shelling in the village of Hatne. Reuters -
The damaged administrative building of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, a city in the Zaporizhzhia region. Reuters -
A bright object lands on the grounds of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine, during heavy shelling by Russian forces. AP -
Zlata, 3, with her face painted in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, stands on the Romanian side of the border with Ukraine after fleeing the country. AP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview with foreign media in Kyiv. Reuters -
Ukrainian artillerymen maintain their position in the Luhansk region. AFP -
Women and children try to board a train bound for Lviv, at a station in Kyiv. AP -
US soldiers on patrol near a military camp in Arlamow, Poland, near the border with Ukraine. AFP -
A woman and child look out the window of a train at a station in Kyiv. AP -
A descendant of Ukrainian immigrants attends Mass at a Ukrainian Orthodox church in Canoas, Brazil. Reuters -
Boxes of donations destined for Ukraine at the St Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Montreal, Canada. AP -
Firefighters battle a blaze at a damaged building in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv after a Russian air raid. AP -
A woman in Frankfurt, Germany, attends a protest against Russia's military offensive in Ukraine. AFP
“The dislocation of command and control has been significant,” he said. “What they've done is continued to reinforce failure.
“Hammering away at the same objective and hoping to get a different result is perhaps defined as madness.”
A key failure, he added, was the Russians' inability to destroy Ukraine’s air defences in the opening shots of the war. This has not only given their land forces and helicopters less protection from Ukraine’s missiles but has meant that their airborne command and control systems — similar to US Awacs — has not been able to co-ordinate aircraft or ground manoeuvres.
The 64-kilometre-long armoured column that has been stalled 40km outside of Kyiv since at least Monday has been stranded mainly because Ukrainians have destroyed a number of bridges and the Russians lack engineers to fix them.
Also, vehicles destroyed in the column have delayed logistics, with getting around them creating an “enormously large traffic jam”.
Similarly, the failure to rapidly land amphibious ships close to the vital economic hub of Odesa had given the Ukrainians time to sow mines that are hindering operations in the Black Sea.
Referring to the Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Friday morning, the official said that while it was designed to withstand a direct hit, the attack had caused serious safety concerns, especially over electrical power and security systems.
“The incident today is unprecedented and demonstrates the recklessness of the use of force by Russian military in Ukraine that they have taken such a risk of firing munitions into a nuclear power plant in order to seize control,” he said.
“I sincerely hope that the level of risk and recklessness that was taken this morning is not replicated by Russian forces in any subsequent operation.”
