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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Will Stewart & Laura Sharman

Putin suffers fresh blow as ninth Russian colonel slaughtered alongside 8 troops

Russia has lost another colonel in Ukraine after his regiment was hit building a pontoon bridge in the Chernihev region.

Lt Col Alexander Kornik, 39, was reported to have died alongside eight soldiers of his regiment with 17 more injured.

Six bodies of dead servicemen could not be removed from the water, and were carried away by the current on March 27, said senior Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk.

However, separate accounts give the date of his death as March 2 and March 15.

News of Kornik's death comes the day after it was announced that top Russian general Col Denis Kurilo had been "eliminated" along with 1,500 troops.

The commander of the 200th motorised rifle brigade died in fighting outside Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, it was claimed.

Pictures show a funeral held for Lt Col Alexander Kornik, 39, in Yekaterinburg, Russia (social media/e2w)
Lt Col Alexander Kornik was given full military honours at a funeral service in Yekaterinburg, pictures show (social media/e2w)

Just three days prior, Ukraine announced Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev, 48, was the seventh general and the second lieutenant general to be killed in the invasion.

Sources in Kyiv said the commander, who previously claimed that the war would be over in a matter of hours, died in a strike close to Kherson city.

Pictures show a funeral service held for Kornik in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg where he was given full military honours.

Kornik was reportedly chief of staff of the 40th Engineer Regiment (social media/e2w)

Despite this, Russia has not officially announced his death in common with many soldiers killed in Ukraine.

Putin has only acknowledged the death of one general so far, understood to be Major Gen Andrey Sukhovetsky, in a speech shortly after the war began.

Ukrainian forces have also claimed to have eliminated Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev, Major General Oleg Mityaev, Major General Vitaly Gerasimov and Major General Andrei Kolesnikov.

Reports indicate that Kornik was chief of staff of the 40th Engineer Regiment.

Russia has not officially announced Kornik's death (social media/e2w)

The Russian troops were killed seeking to build the pontoon over the Desna River.

Ukrainian sources say that five years ago he was barred from entry to the country and found carrying classified documents seen as military training manuals.

They included blasting and de-mining instructions and guides on installing heavy machine guns on vehicles, as well as the construction of fortifications and defensive structures.

He was accused at the time of supervising the training of gangs in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

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