Russian President Putin loses two more colonels in Ukraine including his 'best paratroop commander' as death toll among the high ranks hits 48

 Russian president, Vladimir Putin has lost two more colonels including the country’s 'best

paratroop commander' after they were killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Lieutenant colonel Alexander Dosyagayev, 34, was a commander of an airborne assault battalion of the 104th paratrooper regiment.

Troops from his 104th air assault regiment were reportedly in Bucha, the scene of alleged rape and torture atrocities committed by Vladimir Putin’s forces earlier in the war. His battalion based in Pskov had been recognised as the best in Russia in its extensive combat training and military discipline.

 

At the military festival ‘Army of Russia-2021’, he was judged the winner of the Winged Infantry category.

 

'I was filled with pride that my soldiers and officers showed the result they were striving for,' he said.

This did not help him at a meeting with Ukrainian warriors,' said a statement from the Kyiv armed forces.

Russian media outlet Mediazona confirmed the death of another colonel killed earlier in the war which has not been announced.

 

Col Vladimir Ivanov, 41, has been labelled a 'propagandist' by the Ukrainian media because he served in the Russian defence ministry’s department of Information and Mass Communication.

 

 

It is now established that he died in March.

 

A friend Yevgeny Poddubniy carried his portrait at a march of the 'immortal Regiment' on 9 May commemorating Russians killed in action in multiple conflicts.

 

Dosyagayev and Ivanov are the 47th and 48th colonels known to have died fighting for Russian forces in Ukraine. The toll of generals is now believed to be ten.