Wednesday 18 May 2022 10:37 AM Russia loses ANOTHER colonel... who had been sent into field to replace ... trends now
Vladimir Putin suffered another grievous blow after he lost his 42nd colonel in his bloody war in Ukraine.
Colonel Denis Kozlov, 40, was the second commander of the 12th Separate Guards Engineers of Keningsbersko-Gorodokskaya Red Banner Brigade to die in the conflict.
Kozlov had replaced Colonel Sergei Porokhnya, 45, who was killed in Ukraine on 14 March.
But the officer was among Russian troops to perish on May 11 in a failed advance across the Donets River at Bilohorivka, west of the city of Lysychansk, in the Donbas region, after Ukrainian troops successfully ambushed them.
Colonel Denis Kozlov, 40, was the second commander of the 12th Separate Guards Engineers of Keningsbersko-Gorodokskaya Red Banner Brigade to die in the conflict
Kozlov had replaced Colonel Sergei Porokhnya, 45, (pictured) who was killed in Ukraine on 14 March
Kozlov, who was guiding a pontoon ferry across the river at the time, was killed after Ukrainian forces launched missile strikes on the area.
Satellite images laid bare the scale of Russia's failure with the remains of two pontoon bridges seen drifting in the Donets river, surrounded by the ruins of destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles.
It appears Russian commanders were attempting to surround Lysychansk - and its sister city of Severodonetsk - with the crossing, but saw their sneak-attack turn into a massacre when Ukraine correctly guessed their plans.
'Maxim', a Twitter user claiming to be a Ukrainian military engineer, says he identified the spot where Russia was most-likely to try crossing the river on May 7 and told his commanders to listen out for the sound of tugboat engines pushing a pontoon bridge into place as a sure sign that a crossing was imminent.
On the morning of May 8 Russia blanketed the river with smoke by burning nearby fields and throwing smoke grenades, he said, but commanders detected the sound of boat engines and called in artillery strikes which caused devastating losses.
Kozlov was posthumously decorated with the Russian Order of Courage, and laid to rest in his hometown Murom.
Satellite images laid bare the scale of Russia's failure with the remains of two pontoon bridges seen drifting in the Donets river, surrounded by the ruins of destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles
His death - the 42nd known colonel to perish in the war - highlights the huge toll suffered by Putin’s top brass.
Nine Russian generals are also known to have died with reports that the US has assisted Ukraine with intelligence to allow them to target Putin’s top brass.
The death rate is around one colonel every two days.
In March, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Blinov, 42, was killed but news of his death was strenuously denied by Russian
