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Ukraine reports killing Russian colonel leading assaults in Kharkiv Oblast

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Ukraine reports killing Russian colonel leading assaults in Kharkiv Oblast
Photo for illustrative purposes. Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilization are seen being dispatched to combat coordination areas after a military call-up for the Russia-Ukraine war in Moscow, Russia on October 10, 2022. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces reported on July 26 that Russian Colonel Lebedev, commander of the 83rd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 69th Motorized Rifle Division, had been killed.

According to operational data, Lebedev was leading assault operations in the Velykyi Burluk area of Kharkiv Oblast. No other information was available at the time of the publication.

This reported fatality adds to a significant and growing toll of Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine.

The independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with the BBC Russian service, has confirmed the identities of 119,154 Russian military personnel killed in the war as of July 17. This latest update saw 2,436 additional Russian military personnel confirmed killed since the start of July.

Journalists compiling this data caution that the actual figures are likely considerably higher, as their verified information stems from public sources such as obituaries, family posts, memorial events, regional media reports, and statements from local authorities. The publications began releasing a comprehensive list of identified casualties in February, marking three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The confirmed death toll includes a breakdown of various categories of personnel: 32,100 volunteers, 17,800 recruited prisoners, and 13,000 mobilized soldiers. Additionally, nearly 5,400 officers have been confirmed among the deceased.

Russia has lost approximately 1,048,330 troops in Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff reported on July 26.

As Russia closes in on Pokrovsk, battle for key city enters its final act
Editor’s Note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names and callsigns only. POKROVSK, Donetsk Oblast – Light rain and the dying light of a cool summer evening accompany the Ukrainian drone team’s preparation to begin their shift. The men are silent as the military pick-up truck, full of drones and other supplies, turns off the village track onto the main road south into Pokrovsk. Every trip in and out of
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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