The Russian army rarely communicates about events of this nature, while the official death toll in the conflict remains in question. The two colonels were celebrated for their “heroic” deaths.
Moscow announced this Sunday that two of its Russian military officials were killed on the frontlines in Ukraine, a rare announcement from the military hierarchy since the military offensive began in the neighboring country almost 15 months ago.
Colonels Vyacheslav Makarov and Yevgeny Brovko died “heroically” in Ukraine, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said during a daily news briefing.
A rare communication from Moscow
According to the spokesman, Vyacheslav Makarov, commander of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade, and his men repelled “two enemy attacks” before he “was seriously injured and died during his evacuation from the battlefield.”
Yevgeny Brovko, deputy commander of the army corps “responsible for military-political work”, died on the Ukrainian front “after suffering multiple shrapnel wounds”.
Such communications from the Russian military are particularly rare and reflect the intensification of fighting in recent days, as Moscow says it has repelled a Ukrainian attack along a 95km front in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian “mass attempts” were fended off
Fighting is still raging in and around Bakhmout, the epicenter of hostilities in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, “in the last day, the enemy has made massive attempts to break through the defenses of our troops north and south” of Bachmout.
“All (these) attacks were repelled,” the same source said in a statement.
The Russian ministry also congratulated itself on Sunday for having “touched” sites in Ternopil (west) and Petropavlivka (middle-east) where, in particular, western arms shipped to Kiev were being stored.
The Russian army “launched an attack using long-range, high-precision air and sea weapons (at locations) of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and at locations where ammunition, weapons and military equipment from Western countries were stored,” said Igor Konashenkov. “All targets were hit,” he said.