A Russian marine brigade has been decimated with at least 159 servicemen killed and 500 wounded in the war, it is claimed.
Latest to die was Captain Roman Pasynkov, 35, in charge of conscripts for the Black Sea Fleet.
Earlier in the war Colonel Alexei Sharov, 42, the commander of the 810th Marine Brigade of the Russian Navy was killed in action in Mariupol.
A dramatic collage shows the faces of some of those killed.
Ukraine has accused Russia of hiding the fearsome toll suffered by one of Vladimir Putin ’s most prestigious brigades.
“The 810th Separate Marine Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet has lost 158 servicemen killed, about 500 wounded, and 70 people are missing,” said Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This data for the debilitating losses was based on the latest figures - several weeks old - and before the death of Pasynkov.
He and his wife Anfisa had a daughter.
The up-tosdate figure for dead and wounded is likely to be higher, although Russia has not announced its losses in the war, including in the 810th.
But it means that more than one in four from the 810th are killed, wounded, or missing.
Information is gleaned from funeral reports and other accounts in public sources.
There are also claims that some young marines have refused to fight in the 810th, based at Cossack Bay in naval port Sevastopol.
Russian writer Boris Lukin said his son Ivan, 23, was among those killed in the 810th, shot by a sniper.
He told how there was compelling evidence his son’s body was taken away in a Russian truck, with other corpses, but it has not been handed over to him.
A member of the reconnaissance unit of the 810th, Dmitry Belousov, born in Sevastopol, when it was part of Ukraine, was one of dozens of young servicemen in the brigade to die.
Investigative journalist, Tatyana Rikhtun, from Sevastopol, said there was “a howl over Cossack Bay” as the toll rose - even though it is not acknowledged by the Russians.
The 810th is part of the Black Sea Fleet, whose admiral Admiral Igor Osipov, 49, has not been seen since 14 April when high flagship Moskva sank after being hit by a Ukrainian missile.
There are now suspicions that the commander was on board the vessel when it was hit by Ukrainian Neptune missiles, say Kyiv sources.
Initially Ukraine claimed that the admiral was detained amid fury from Putin over the cruiser's sinking.
There was also a version that he had been suspended.
This was never confirmed by Russian officials who this week insisted he was at his “combat post” but “not in the mood” to face the public.
Osipov, 49, was conspicuously absent from the Red Square Victory Day parade on Monday, which he would routinely be expected to attend.
He was also nowhere to be seen at events linked to annual Black Sea Fleet Day last week.
At one event on 7 May, he was reported as being present only for his name to be removed later.
The governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev said: “Our commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Igor Vladimirovich Osipov, is now at his combat post.
“Of course he is not in the mood for social networks and congratulations, but I’m sure he and our Black Sea people feel our support.”
Despite this, several sources say that Osipov has not been seen “live” since the Black Sea Fleet flagship was sunk on 14 April.
