The wreckage of a downed Russian helicopter lies in a field near Kharkiv on April 16, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A Russian colonel has reportedly been killed in a helicopter crash.SERGEY BOBOK/GETTY
Dramatic footage reportedly shows the moment a Russian colonel crashes in his helicopter after being hit with a Ukrainian missile. Lieutenant Colonel Sergey Gundorov, 51, was struck near Volnovakha in the Donbas. The military helicopter flew on after being hit with a portable surface-to-air missile. His stricken Mi-35 touched the ground before cartwheeling over a narrow strip of woodland and crashing in a fireball in a field. Flames and black smoke are seen emanating from the explosion. A second Russian helicopter is seen firing decoy flares and apparently escapes unscathed. Gundorov was the 55th known Russian colonel to be killed in Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine but there has been many more since.
Russian Lieutenant-Colonel Sergey Gundorov, 51, was reportedly killed over Volnovakha in the Donbas on June 16, 2022 ( Image: Social media/east2west news)
A Russian account on the death of the high-ranked pilot, first class, said: “Bright eternal memory to the Hero who left on his last flight. “Pilots don't die, they fly into the sky…The best men are leaving us.” He died after completing a “combat mission”, it was claimed. Gundorov had previously won three Orders of Courage.
Highly decorated Colonel Sergei Krasnikov, 56, a renowned action man who had parachuted at the North Pole, died in an ambush on a reconnaissance mission.
Lt Col Denis Mezhuev, commander of the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Sevastopol Red Banner regiment, has reportedly died in battle (Image: social media / East2west News) He is ranked as the 40th Russian commander to perish in Ukraine. Russian poet Andrey Kovalev, a prominent Putin supporter, has called for Mezhuev to be awarded a posthumous medal for his sacrifice.
Earlier, the death of Colonel Sergei Postnov - in his 40s - was disclosed.
Gundorov died on June 16th 2022, but his loss is only now acknowledged. Among condolences to the colonel, a married father of two, was a message from his teenage younger son Ilya saying simply: “Love you Dad.” Family pictures show him with his sons and wife Anzhela. His death follows the loss of two colonels announced on the same day — highly decorated Colonel Sergei Krasnikov, 56, who had volunteered to re-join the forces to go to war, and Colonel Sergei Postnov - in his 40s. Putin has also lost at least 11 generals. At the start of June 2022, Putin was dealt a fresh blow as a colonel close to Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov was seriously wounded in a gun battle. Lieutenant Colonel Mezhid Utsmigov was hit during a brutal battle - just after Kadyrov used Putin’s absence at the Kremlin to gain promises from Moscow that the war would proceed at a “faster pace”.
In this Friday, May 10, 2019 file photo, Chechnya's regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov speaks during a meeting in Grozny, Russia. Kadyrov said Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021 that his forces have killed six suspected militants, including a warlord accused of organizing a 2011 suicide attack at a Moscow airport. He claimed that the raid marked the elimination of the last group of militants that remained in the region. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev, file)
Russian official warns the West of destruction for arming Ukraine, “Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe,” State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said. “If Washington and NATO supply weapons that would be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”
Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin
© Yulia Zyryanova/POOL/TASS
A Leopard battle tank of the Armoured Brigade is seen during the Army mechanised exercise Arrow 22 exercise, Niinisalo garrison, Western Finland, May 2022 - Copyright Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
Ukraine's supporters pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine on Friday, though the new commitments were overshadowed by defense leaders failing at an international meeting in Ramstein, Germany, to agree on Ukraine's urgent request for German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks. Germany is one of the main donors of weapons to Ukraine, and it ordered a review of its Leopard 2 stocks in preparation for a possible green light. Nonetheless, the government in Berlin has shown caution at each step of increasing its commitments to Ukraine, a hesitancy seen as rooted in its history and political culture. Its tentativeness has drawn heavy criticism, particularly from Poland and the Baltic states, countries on NATO's eastern flank controlled by Moscow in the past and feel especially threatened by Russia's renewed imperial ambitions. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that if Germany does not consent to transferring Leopard tanks to Ukraine, his country was prepared to build a coalition of countries that would send theirs anyway.
Leopard was first produced in the late 1970s to replace the American M48 Patton and soon became renowned for its firepower, mobility, and sturdy armour. Leopard 2 is “sort of like the [Volkswagen] Golf of the German tank industry: an all-rounder with world recognition”, according to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. About 3,500 of the 60-tonne battle tanks, developed by German weapons manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), have been produced. The tanks are armed with a 120mm smoothbore cannon and can move at speeds of up to 70 kilometres (44 miles) per hour with a range of 500km (310 miles). They also provide “all-round protection” for troops from threats such as mines, anti-tank fire, and improvised explosive devices, according to the manufacturer. The last four models produced are still in use – from the 2A4 to the 2A7. Germany has been reluctant to provide the tanks to Ukraine because of the anti-militarism position it adopted after World War II. However, pressure has been mounting on Germany and it has been put in a difficult position.
How Good is Leopard 2 Tank
If Sent To Ukraine How Good is the Leopard 2 Tank in it's ability to Destroy Russia Tanks.
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, warned on his messaging app channel that Russia could seek to form a military alliance with foes of the United States. He didn’t name the nations he had in mind, but Russia has defense cooperation with Iran and Venezuela, an existing military alliance with Belarus and strong ties with North Korea.. Since invading Ukraine, Russia also has increased both the scope and the number of its joint military drills with China. “In case of a protracted conflict, a new military alliance will emerge that will include the nations that are fed up with the Americans and a pack of their castrated dogs," Medvedev said.
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (Russian: Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, IPA born 14th September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev also served as the president of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and prime minister of Russia between 2012 and 2020. During Medvedev's tenure, the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty was signed by Russia and the United States, Medvedev also launched an anti-corruption campaign, despite later being accused of corruption himself. In the views of some analysts, Medvedev's presidency did seem to promise positive changes, both at home and in ties with the West, signaling "the possibility of a new, more liberal period in Russian politics"; however, he later seemed to adopt increasingly radical positions.
Oleksii Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council.
Oleksii Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, warned that Russia may try to intensify its attacks in the south and in the east and to cut supply channels of Western weapons, while conquering Kyiv “remains the main dream” in President Vladimir Putin’s "fantasies.” he said. He described the Kremlin’s goal in the conflict as a “total and absolute genocide, a total war of destruction.” “Moscow wants to completely destroy Ukraine as a historical phenomenon — its language, history, culture, carriers of Ukrainian identity,” Danilov wrote in a column published by Ukrainska Pravda.