Disaster for Putin's army as five top Russian officials 'killed in Ukraine air strike'

Ukrainian troops on the battlefield

Vladimir Putin may have been dealt a massive blow as Ukraine claimed to have killed five Russian officials.

The National Resistance Centre, a branch of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wrote on the messaging app Telegram Kyiv targeted with a missile strike a building in which a meeting attended by Russian military bosses was taking place.

The attack was launched on November 28 in Yuvileyne, a village in the part of the Kherson region currently held by Russian forces.

The strike was launched in the wake of “information provided by the underground and concerned local residents”, the post read.

As a result of successful actions, the Centre went on to claim that “five high-ranking officials are known to have died”.

Military mobility of the Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine

The centre didn’t provide the names or ranks of the officials.

The post also included pictures of a two-storey building, believed to have been targeted by the Ukrainian attack, with its roof and facade partially destroyed and windows blown out.

This comes as Russia is facing troubles on the eastern front, where its men continue to die in a weeks-long attempt to capture the city of Avdiivka.

Following two days of storms and forecasts warning more rain will fall in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials noted the ground is currently unsuitable for military manoeuvres, which forced Moscow’s troops to halt their attempts to take on Avdiivka.

Serhiy Tsekhotskyi, a Ukrainian officer in the town, said: “They’ve started to shell the town centre from Donetsk. Our brigade is holding its ground, but we can’t see any equipment coming. The weather is unsuitable. But once the frosts come and the ground hardens, an attempted assault with equipment is possible.”

Military spokesman Volodymyr Fitio also spoke about the weather and how it is affecting Russian troops, as he told Espreso TV: “You cannot advance when the ground is like this.

“The Russians previously brought in reserves and threw them into battle. There are a lot fewer movements like that now because of the weather.”

A Russian military blogger also reported, as noted by US think tank ISW, mid-level command problems among Russian forces operating on the left bank of the Kherson region “amid continued complaints about weak Russian capabilities and the vulnerability of Russian ground lines of communications” on this side of the occupied territory.

Earlier this month, in what may be one of the last movements on the ground of the spring counter-offensive before winter sets in, Ukrainian troops managed to establish a bridgehead across the Dnipro River, which had been for months the natural frontline in the south of Ukraine.