More than 20 Russian generals were killed during the fighting in Ukraine since February last year, the Nikkei newspaper writes, citing Japanese intelligence data collected in cooperation with special services United States And her Europe.

“In June, the British media reported that more than 10 generals had been killed. Japan estimates that the total number is over 20 based on information gathered in collaboration with the US and Europe.

The frequent deaths of high-ranking officers are not typical in the West and could highlight the weakness of the Russian army, according to the report, which does not include casualties or the names of those killed.

The Russian website “Mediazona” wrote about the death of four Russian generals in Ukraine. One of them, 63-year-old flight commander Konamat Botashev, was retired at the time of his death and probably served in the Air Force of the Russian military organization Wagner.

Earlier, military experts noted that the relatively high mortality of senior Russian officers is due to the fact that they have to manually control the fighting on the battlefield. This, on the one hand, can be explained by the poor organization of command, and on the other hand, by the structure of the Russian army with a relatively high number of senior officers.

Nikkei points out that the deaths of the generals may be related to Ukraine’s superiority in spying on electronic communications and the creation of a network of whistleblowers in the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine (Donetsk and Lugansk).

A Japanese intelligence official told the newspaper that the failure of the Russian military, as evidenced by the deaths of generals, could worry China, and Beijing could start providing covert military assistance to Moscow.

^{Source: APE-MPE, Svoboda.org, asia.nikkei.com}