Russia has lost its 15th commander as Putin's army continues to 'haemorrhage generals' amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
As the Kremlin reportedly fumes at the loss of some of its top generals, experts have said there could be a catalogue of reasons why senior Russian officers have fallen.
It comes amid reports of unreliable equipment and electronics amongst Russian forces, as well as subordinates being too terrified to make quick decisions.
Former US army general and CIA director David Petraeus said Ukraine also has "good snipers" which are able to target key individuals when a Russian chain of command breaks down.
He said: "The communications have been jammed. The column gets stopped, and an impatient general goes forward to see what’s going on.
"There’s no initiative, no non-commissioned officer corps, no sense of initiative at junior levels. They wait to be told what to do, and the Ukrainians have very, very good snipers."
An anonymous diplomat also told Foreign Policy that generals were "struggling on the front line to get their orders through".
In a latest blow to Putin, Colonel Alexei Sharov was killed in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukrainian army officer Anatoliy Stefan has claimed.
Analysts believe Russian commanders are now suffering a higher casualty rate than in any conflict since World War Two.
Sharov was head of the 810th Guards Separate Order of Zhukov Brigade in Russia's marine corps.
It comes after Colonel Nikolay Ovcharenko was reportedly killed while setting up a pontoon bridge near Izium, Ukraine.
The Commander of the 45th Engineering Regiment died alongside 18 of his comrades, it is claimed.
Five generals are among the other top Russian military figures to perish in Ukraine.
These are Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev, Major General Oleg Mityaev, Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, Major General Vitaly Gerasimov and Major General Andrei Kolesnikov.
The first general's death came only four days into the invasion, and in the just over three weeks since, a significant number of Russian military leaders have been killed in battle.
Some of the dead Russian commanders were said to have come to the frontline, something they would normally do if there were issues over decision-making, or their seniority was needed to get the troops forward.
Western sources said that a lot of generals are being killed because they are being pushed closer to the front line than usual to boost Russian soldiers' morale
According to Foreign Policy magazine, Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said: “It’s a bigger problem if you lose commanders of units because then it’s harder to have someone step in and take over."
