Russian military leaders are reportedly struggling to boost troop morale after the 10th general was killed this weekend in the ongoing war with Ukraine.
Major General Andrei Simonov was killed on Saturday near the town of Izyum in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian authorities. The general was among 100 soldiers killed when a volley of missiles hit armored vehicles and tanks, which would mean another major loss for the Russian military after the nation first invaded Ukraine on February 24, the Kyiv Post reported.
Newsweek failed to independently verify Simonov’s death. Simonov was the senior commander of the electronic war, according to the Kyiv Post.
Analysts say part of the reason so many generals were killed during the war was that leaders had to go to the front lines to motivate troops.
Ukrainian main battle tank is moving on the road near Svyatohirsk, eastern Ukraine, on April 30, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP / Getty Images
“They have to go to the troops at the front and try to encourage the troops to fight and kill themselves,” said former Estonian soldier Riho Terras in an interview with Express UK. This only shows me that the spirit is not there. “
The Ukrainian government also said last month that morale had become so low in parts of the Russian army that some troops are now refusing to fight.
“The morale and psychological condition of these personnel is low and there is a tendency to deteriorate,” said a statement from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Facebook.
Meanwhile, James Stavridis, the former commander-in-chief of NATO’s allies in Europe, said on Sunday that the number of Russian generals killed showed the nation had shown “astonishing incompetence” throughout the war.
“There is no situation in modern history comparable to the deaths of generals,” Stavridis said in a radio interview with WABC 770 AM. “Just to compare here, the United States in all our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq … in all these years and all these battles, no general has been lost in a real battle. He added that he believed the Russian military had an “inability to conduct logistics” and had “bad combat plans”.
Last month, Newsweek compiled a list of several Russian generals killed during the war. The first killed general, Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, was reportedly hit by sniper fire on February 28.
Since the start of the war, NATO has estimated that Russia has lost between 7,000 and 15,000 troops. However, Ukraine claims to have killed more than 20,000 people. Overall, the number of military casualties in Russia may have surpassed that of Ukraine, with Ukrainian authorities claiming about 3,000 of its soldiers have been killed, Forbes reported. However, the official death toll from Ukraine has not been confirmed independently by the United States
Newsweek contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry for further comment.
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