The statement said Bespalov was the commander of the 59th Guards Tank Regiment, and become the latest senior Russian military officer to be killed in the war that has seen Kyiv's forces surprise exerts with their fierce resistance. The colonel is the latest in a long line of slain Russian military leaders, which experts say betray the Kremlin's blundering tactics in the brutal invasion. Colonel Alexei Sharov, commander of the 810th Guards Separate Order of Zhukov Brigade in the Russian Marines, was killed in Mariupol in March. Russian brigade commander Colonel Yuri Medvedev was even run down with a tank by his own mutinous troops. The number of both rank-and-file Russian troops and senior officers allegedly killed in the month-long war has shocked Western military and security officials.
