Rare reports from the Russian Ministry of Defense about the simultaneous death of two convoys are bad news for the troops fighting in Ukraine, the BBC reports. Senior officers should not be on the skirmish line, in which case several scenarios should be considered.

The commander of the 4th separate motorized rifle brigade, Colonel Vyacheslav Makarov, died in Ukraine during a battle near the village of Krasne (Soviet name Ivanovske in Bakhmut), Russian news agencies report with reference to the statement of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

“Vyacheslav Makarov, being on the front line, personally led the battle. Two enemy attacks were repulsed. The personnel of the brigade destroyed three tanks, four BMPs and two armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the repulse of the third attack, the brigade commander was seriously wounded and died during the evacuation from the battlefield,” the department said in a statement quoted by RIA Novosti.

In addition, according to the press release of the Russian Ministry of Defense, in the same battle, the deputy commander of the army corps for military-political activities, Colonel Yevhen Brovko, was killed.

Even if Makarov had not died in battle, this fact alone would have meant the existence of problems with command in the compound.

A commander of this level should not lead a battle while on the front line, the BBC reports.

He must be at headquarters, at the command post, and direct the defense or offensive through the chain of command by means of communications.

And if a senior officer went to the front line and began to give orders on the battlefield himself, then this could mean problems with the chain of command, when lower officers are unable to lead their units, communications are interrupted and Ukrainian troops or infiltrate the command post and directly attack him, or the troops had retreated so far that the command was in jeopardy.

The Ministry of Defense did not disclose the circumstances of the death of the deputy commander of the army corps Yevgeny Brovko, only that he was “in another area to repel enemy attacks.”

This could mean that the crisis with which the colonel commander had to deal arose not in one place, but in at least two, and did not affect any single unit.

Earlier, the founder of “Wagner”, whose mercenaries are trying to capture Bakhmut, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that Ukrainian forces managed to regain control over part of the territory on the flanks near the city. The village of Ivanivske (the Ministry of Defense of Russia prefers the former name Krasne) is located on one of the flanks, south of the city.

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