Russian military commanders killed as battle over Kyiv's sovereignty continues

High-ranking Russian military officials have been killed by Melitopol guerrillas, the Ukrainian military said as the battle over Kyiv’s sovereignty continued for the 12th week. In a telegram statement, Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration said Kremlin was aware of the losses but was trying to “hide the situation.” Previously, the Ukrainian military had reported that it has killed over 27,000 enemy troops since the conflict began on February 24.

Earlier this month, a BBC report confirmed the deaths of at least seven prominent Russian military generals in the ongoing battle. It said that top commanders were being deployed on the frontline in order to maintain the momentum of war, but this put them at greater risks. "Those commanders are trying to impose their own personality on the battlefield, but this, in turn, is placing them at greater risk," according to the English media outlet.

Battle continues for Kyiv

The Russia-Ukraine war has now continued for the 12th week with the Ukrainian military claiming to have killed as many as 27,000 troops since the war started. Attacks and combat have continued in Ukraine's south and east. Notably, Putin’s forces have also continued to shell western cities including Ukraine's cultural capital of Lviv, in a bid to cut off western supplies. On Tuesday, EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell announced renewed support to the battling troops and said, “We have to continue to support the Ukrainians with arms, that’s why we will pull 500 million euros more” from the European Peace Facility.

He, meanwhile, also said that the Russian army has suffered “impressive losses” while invading Ukraine. With Kyiv putting forward unprecedented resistance, Putin’s forces pull all stops to salvage their so-called military operation. On Tuesday, Borrell asserted that it was a “world record” for any army to suffer as many losses as Russia. 

"I wouldn't dare to make a hypothesis about how long Russia can resist... If it is true that Russia has lost 15% of their troops since the beginning of the war, this is a world record of the losses of an army invading a country," the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters after a meeting of the bloc's defence ministers. 

(Image: AP)