Thread by @Mickangello

@IAPonomarenko Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, 48, was reportedly killed in a strike by the Ukrainian armed forces after telling his regiment the operation in Ukraine would only last a 'few hours'. Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, 48, was killed in a strike by… mirror.co.uk/news/world-new…

@IAPonomarenko the Ukrainian armed forces, say military sources in Kyiv. He was Commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District. The Russian side has not so far confirmed the death. A service member said Lt. Gen. Yakov Rezantsev told them on the fourth day of their

@IAPonomarenko deployment that the war would be over quickly. The soldier said: “Do you know what he told us? ‘It’s no secret to anyone that there are only a few hours until this special operation is over.’ - And now those hours are still going." As the Kremlin reportedly fumes at the loss of

@IAPonomarenko some of its top generals, experts have said there could be a catalogue of reasons why senior Russian officers have fallen. It comes amid reports of unreliable equipment and electronics amongst Russian forces, as well as subordinates being too terrified to make quick decisions.

@IAPonomarenko Former US army general and CIA director David Petraeus said Ukraine also has "good snipers" which are able to target key individuals when a Russian chain of command breaks down. He said: "The communications have been jammed. The column gets stopped, and an impatient general goes

@IAPonomarenko forward to see what’s going on.
"There’s no initiative, no non-commissioned officer corps, no sense of initiative at junior levels. They wait to be told what to do, and the Ukrainians have very, very good snipers." An anonymous diplomat also told Foreign Policy that generals

@IAPonomarenko were "struggling on the front line to get their orders through". Analysts believe Russian commanders are now suffering a higher casualty rate than in any conflict since World War Two. Some of the dead Russian commanders were said to have come to the frontline, something they

@IAPonomarenko would normally do if there were issues over decision-making, or their seniority was needed to get the troops forward. It comes after Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin are reportedly sending execution squads after their own army with orders to kill any Russians who try to flee.

@IAPonomarenko Ukraine security services claim that prisoners of war have told them of the horrific tactic that has reportedly seen Russian guns aimed at their own. The ‘execution squads’ are a revival of Stalin’s World War Two tactics and are another sign of dire morale among Moscow’s troops.

@IAPonomarenko