Major-General Dmitry Ulyanov, 44, had returned to active service after retirement as a commander in Russia s illegal Ukrainian invasion. He died in a firefight, reports said.
Russia yesterday admitted that it has given up trying to hold Snake Island in the face of withering Ukrainian artillery fire, the latest in a long line of humiliating battlefield defeats for Putin s armed forces.
The 20 stone General Pavel, 67, has been summoned from his comfortable retirement in the Moscow suburbs and told to don his army fatigues and go to the front lines of eastern Ukraine.
The double-blow means the Kremlin has seen at least 52 colonels killed during the bloody conflict in Ukraine, that began on Vladimir Putin s orders on February 24.