Vladimir Putin’s Russian Army has lost another commander – the 15th of Putin’s top military leaders to be killed as the country’s invasion of Ukraine heads into its second month.
Colonel Alexei Sharov became the latest high-ranking Russian official to die in what has become the country’s biggest loss of military higher-ups since World War II. His death was announced by Ukrainian armed forces on social media Tuesday.
The commander of the 810th Guards Separate Order of Zhukov Brigade in the Russian Marines, Sharov was reportedly killed in Mariupol, a city in which over 100,000 people have been trapped amid a siege by the invading Russians.
At least 902 civilians have been killed and 1,459 wounded in Ukraine as of midnight on March 19, the UN human rights office said.
Ten million people have been displaced, including nearly 3.4 million who have fled the country, the U.N. refugee agency said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Novgorod Region Governor Andrei Nikitin during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 22
In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 22
Russian media had reported that they’ve lost almost 10,000 troops of their own since the invasion began but the tabloid paper Komsomolskaya Pravda has since said they were hacked and this was not the case.
Russia has not officially updated its casualty figures since stating on March 2 that 498 servicemen had been killed and 1,597 wounded. Since then its offensive has run into further heavy resistance from Ukraine’s army and volunteer defence forces.
Sharov’s death comes after the death of Colonel Nikolay Ovcharenko, Commander of the 45th Engineering Regiment.
Sharov is the fifth colonel to die and marks 15 of Russia’s military commanders to have died in the invasion, according to The Sun. Foreign Policy reported that Moscow has suffered its highest casualty rate among top brass since the WWII.
The news comes as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said some 100,000 are still in the besieged city of Mariupol, trapped ‘in inhumane conditions’ while low on supplies and under constant attack.
In his regular evening address the Ukrainian president said that one group fleeing along an agreed humanitarian route were ‘simply captured by the occupiers.’
He added: ‘There are about 100,000 people in the city – in inhumane conditions, in a complete blockade, no food, no water, no medicine, under constant shelling.’
Zelensky also accused Russian forces of not only blocking a humanitarian convoy trying to take desperately needed aid to Mariupol but seizing what another Ukrainian official said were 15 of the bus drivers and rescue workers on the aid mission, along with their vehicles.
The Ukrainian president said the Russians had agreed to the route ahead of time.
‘We are trying to organise stable humanitarian corridors for Mariupol residents, but almost all of our attempts, unfortunately, are foiled by the Russian occupiers, by shelling or deliberate terror,’ he added in a nightly video address to the nation.
Two ‘super powerful bombs’ hit Mariupol yesterday as officials tried to evacuate thousands of civilians from the besieged city, which has been described as a ‘hell-scape riddled with dead bodies’ by humanitarian workers.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said there ‘will not be enough space for everyone’ to leave the city on Tuesday – amid estimates that up to 300,000 people remain there – but ‘we will try to carry out the evacuation until we have gotten all the inhabitants.’
As the evacuation got under way two ‘super powerful bombs’ struck the port city, local officials said, without saying whether they killed anyone. ‘It is clear that the occupiers are not interested in the city of Mariupol, they want to raze it to the ground, to reduce it to ashes,’ they said.
Two ‘super powerful bombs’ hit Mariupol today as officials tried to evacuate thousands of civilians from the besieged city, which has been described as a ‘hell-scape riddled with dead bodies’ by humanitarian workers
It came as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an end to the ‘absurd war’ started when Vladimir Putin gave the order to invade almost exactly a month ago, warning that the conflict is ‘going nowhere fast’ and that the Ukrainian people are ‘enduring a living hell.’
‘Continuing the war in Ukraine is morally unacceptable, politically indefensible and militarily nonsensical,’ Guterres said. ‘Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house.
‘This war is unwinnable. Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table. It is time to end this absurd war,’ he added.
President Zelensky said Ukraine is ‘on the brink of surviving’ its war as he told lawmakers in a video address yesterday that Italy must stop being ‘a resort for murderers’ and urged the country to ban Russian ships from its ports.
In a speech to the Italian parliament, Zelensky urged the country’s MPs to freeze all assets belonging to the Russian elite and to declare a full trade embargo, starting with oil.
A handout satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows a burning high-rise apartment buildings in Mariupol, Ukraine
Russian troops entered Ukraine on 24 February prompting the country’s president to declare martial law and triggering a series of announcements by Western countries to impose severe economic sanctions on Russia
He said: ‘You know very well who orders troops to go to war and who propagates this. Almost all of them use Italy as a place to rest. Do not be a resort for murderers.
‘Freeze all their property, accounts and yachts. Freeze all the assets of those who have influence, let them use it for peace. Support sanctions against Russia, a full trade embargo, starting with oil.’
He also asked Italy to remove enemy troops from Ukraine and to help carry out the de-mining and reconstruction of the country ‘after this war’.
‘Together with you, together with Italy. Together with Europe. Together – in the European Union,’ he added.
He also begged the country’s MPs to step up sanctions on the Russian economy, saying ‘more pressure’ can help Ukraine withstand the Kremlin assault.
US President Joe Biden will meet with European leaders at an extraordinary NATO summit in Brussels on March 24. He will attend a scheduled European Council summit, where efforts to impose sanctions are underway.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: ‘While he’s there, his goal is to meet in person face-to-face with his European counterparts and talk about, assess where we are at this point in the conflict in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
‘We’ve been incredibly aligned to date. That doesn’t happen by accident. The president is a big believer in face-to-face diplomacy. So it’s an opportunity to do exactly that.’
The trip follows Kamala Harris’s visit to eastern flank NATO countries of Poland and Romania last week to discuss with leaders the growing refugee crisis in eastern Europe and to underscore the US’s support for NATO.
Poland’s foreign minister Zbigniew Rau said Tuesday a visit by Biden to Poland was ‘very probable’ when he comes to Europe.
More than 1.8million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since the start of the war, according to the UN. More than three million people have fled Ukraine since Russian launched its invasion.
Rau told Polish state TVP INFO: ‘It would be hard to imagine a better place for the United States and for the entire alliance to stress their position than the brightest link on the eastern flank, that Poland is.’
Psaki said she did not have additional details about whether Biden would visit Poland during the trip.
The latest attacks come ahead of Biden’s trip to Europe next week for face-to-face talks with European leaders about the Russian invasion, White House press secretary Jen Psaki (pictured)
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