AGI – The Russian army in Ukraine continues to lose parts, or rather heads, the important ones: in the last few hours, the General Staff of Kyiv announced the death of Andrei Mordvichev, commander of the eighth combined army, the fifth Russian general to have lost his life in over three weeks of war so far.
On Twitter, the Ukrainian defense posted a photo of him appraising the troops, drawn with a big red X that leaves no room for doubt. Before him, Ukrainians Vitaly Gerasimov, Andrei Kolesnikov, Oleg Mityaev and Andrei Sukhovetsky, all experienced generals, fell under the blows of Ukraine. Veterans of the wars the Federation has waged over the past thirty years, from Chechnya to Georgia, from Syria to Donbass.
Внаслідок нанесення вогневого ураження по противнику, знищено командувача 8-ї загальновійськової армії Південного військового округу збройних сил російської федерації генерал-лейтенанта Андрія Мордвічева. pic.twitter.com/gNfSCMIpkw
– Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) March 19, 2022
A death of “poppies” that sounds unusual for the Western world, where one has to carefully sift through past news to find victims in the high ranks: among US generals, for example, The only one to fall on the field in decades was Harold GreeneVictim of an Afghan soldier who opened fire at a British training center near Kabul in August 2014 (the so-called “green-on-blue attack”).
One of the main factors questioned by the experts is that limited leadership initiative that distinguishes the lower ranks in the Russian Armed Forces. “There is less agency in the lower ranks, less preparation, especially less leadership and resourcefulness, and this can bring higher levels of command closer to the front lines,” with the ensuing risks, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, former Secretary of Defense in the 2011-2013 biennium and former chief of staff between 2004 and 2008, AGI explained.
Since “the Russian advance does not appear to be progressing as initially thought, it may have been necessary” to deploy generals closer to the front lines “to lead the attack with greater determination,” the admiral continued. However, it must be borne in mind that “the mobile command posts are located on vehicles quite close to the front line”: considering that “the Ukrainian armed forces often attacked the rear”, using “hit-and-run” -Raids, this is the case “Reasonable to think that among the various means they also destroyed command posts … with their occupants “, concluded Di Paola.
“In the western world Such high ranks are unlikely to die in battlethese will not be deployed near the front lines, General Leonardo Tricarico confirmed to the AGI. The context certainly carries weight, he continued: “This is an invasion war and I don’t know how equipped the Russians are to manage command and control activities. The somewhat crude way they seem to have approached this operation it may also have caused high ranks to flock to the battlefield.”
Attempting to “decapitate” enemy military commands is nothing new in war, and Kyiv is not short of expending time and energy to achieve the goal. According to a source close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a special intelligence unit is working on the ground to locate and eliminate – by sniper or “rough” artillery fire – senior Russian officers involved in the conflict.
Kyiv can boast of a very competent special forcessaid Tricarico, recalling that in a recent “assessment of the US and other NATO countries, the Ukrainian army and navy, and perhaps aviation as well, were still not considered up to the standards of the Atlantic Alliance, although this has been the case in recent years Case was a very pronounced professionalization. The situation is different with the special units, since they have largely reached this level”.