Ukrainians Decimate Russian Commanders in Major Humiliation for Putin

(Social media photo shows Andrey Paliy)

Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin’s botched invasion of Ukraine is increasingly turning not just into a hellishly bloody embarrassment, but also into an outright humiliation.

The plucky defenders of Ukraine have killed yet another very high-ranking Russian commander, this time, the deputy head of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Russia’s Black Sea Navy is Taking a Hit

The assassination of First Rank Capt. Andrey Paliy, 51, announced by the Ukrainian government on Sunday, brought the total number of senior Russian military figures taken out during the invasion of Ukraine to 14.

The announcement comes after earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry released its daily count of Putin’s military losses.

The Defense Ministry estimated that more than 14,700 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the invasion.

Also, Russia lost so far a total of 96 warplanes, 118 helicopters, 21 drones, 476 tanks, 230 artillery pieces, 1,487 armored personnel carriers, 947 other vehicles, and 118 missile launchers.

In fact, a day earlier, on Saturday, Russia’s losses after 24 days of fighting in Ukraine surpassed the losses of the Soviet Union in its war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.

The Pentagon’s estimates are smaller. Although counting the thousands of wounded Russians, Putin’s 150,000 and 200,000 troops seem to have lost between a fifth and a fourth of its invasion forces.

Capt. Andrey Paliy, who was just killed by the Ukrainians, is the only senior Russian naval officer to have been taken out by the defenders of Ukraine. He is also the second-highest commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Betrayer of Ukraine Since 1993

Paliy has an interesting personal history with Ukraine.

He was born in Kyiv, as an ethnic Russian. Then, in 1993, as a military officer after the breakup of the former Soviet Union, of which both Russia and Ukraine were part of, he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the newly independent Ukraine.

Therefore, he went on to serve in the Russian military. Paliy was killed near Mariupol, which has been besieged, starved, and bombed to the ground by the Russian invaders.

Besides the naval commander, Ukrainians have taken out five Russian generals, a fourth of some 20 generals believed to be on the ground in Ukraine commanding the invasion.

Before Paliy, the preceding senior Russian military commander killed by the Ukrainians was Col. Sergei Sukharev. He was commander of a Russian parachute assault regiment based in Kostroma near Moscow, who was taken out together with three junior officers of his unit.

The other high-profile Putin commanders who have perished in Ukraine, in most cases at the hands of Ukrainian snipers are as follows:

Maj. Gen. Oleg Mityaev, who commanded the 150th motorized rifle division; Maj. Gen. Andrei Kolesnikov, head of the 29th Combined Army; Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov, deputy head of Russia’s 41st army; Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy head of the 41st Combined Army; and Chechen special forces General Magomed Tushaev.

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