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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRussian brigade commander killed deliberately by his own troops after his unit suffered many losses
Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah (security and defence editor at Sky News)
BREAKING: A Russian brigade commander has been killed deliberately by his own troops after his unit suffered many losses in Ukraine, a western official said. Colonel Medvechek, commander of 37 Motor Rifle Brigade, was run over by his soldiers, the official said.
The western official said: The brigade commander of one of the units was killed by his own troops, we believe, as a consequence of the scale of loss that had been taken by his brigade."
The western official continued: "That just gives an insight into perhaps some of the morale challenges that Russian forces are having." The western official pronounced the name of the killed commander as Colonel Med-fe-chek but didn't give spelling.
The western official added: "We believe he was killed by his own troops deliberately. Indeed we believe he was run over by his own troops and I believe he was the commander of the 37 Motor Rifle Brigade."
10:11 AM · Mar 25, 2022
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lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)llashram
(6,265 posts)Rocknation
(44,555 posts)Fragging?
Rocknation
LaMouffette
(2,013 posts)en masse to "un-friend" their commanding officers?
LastDemocratInSC
(3,625 posts)getagrip_already
(14,250 posts)haele
(12,581 posts)In the US forces, the LTs and Captains tended to be the targets as they were the ones that were: 1) less tactically savvy and more likely to blindly carry out orders without considering the survival of the units, and 2) in closer contact with the troops.
The amount of Russian birds and stars being killed or seriously wounded indicate that the lower officer ranks and NCO ranks are incapable of enough independent leadership for the upper echelons to stay back in the command area for the "big picture" planning, logistics, and the ability to change tactics that aren't working quickly enough keep an advantage on the field.
Haele
jmowreader
(50,453 posts)In most armies, every enlisted soldier starts as a private. You work your way through the ranks.
In the Russian Army, where all enlisted soldiers are conscripts, the commissars pick out the meanest-looking ones at the conscript depot and send them to NCO school. Six months later you come out as a sergeant...so, at the end of the day their sergeants are just as stupid as the people they're leading. This leads to a LOT of micromanagement.
Response to Rocknation (Reply #4)
haele This message was self-deleted by its author.
DFW
(54,056 posts)It came from a few suspicious deaths of unpopular noncoms by fragmentation grenades.
Ironically, if these Russian troops saw their officer as an enemy, you could say he was vragged. The Russian word for enemy is vrag.
padah513
(2,483 posts)I'd love to see a military coup against Putin crop up out of this fiasco
jaxexpat
(6,703 posts)lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)And I hope the trend is successful.
Maybe the Ukraines could offer a bounty?
Ray Bruns
(4,023 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)ms liberty
(8,479 posts)BMW2020RT
(139 posts)KS Toronado
(16,911 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,548 posts)KS Toronado
(16,911 posts)You owe me a keyboard!
11 Bravo
(23,922 posts)Harker
(13,880 posts)If he's capable of real emotion.
The Mouth
(3,123 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,104 posts)GB_RN
(2,267 posts)And his troops and officers experience the FO part of FAFO.
In this case, it may have been that Col. Medvechek FAd with his men and then FOd.
ironflange
(7,781 posts). . .it would have been the political commissars getting "accidentally" run over.
PatrickforB
(14,516 posts)Seems like anytime we have a war that the troops really, really don't want to fight, this is common.
We didn't hear much about fragging in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there were two known incidents there, as well.
TomWilm
(1,832 posts)Afghanistan Veterans of America, Paul Rieckhoff: "Unlike during the Vietnam War, todays military is a professional, all-volunteer force. There have been only five cases of intentional fratricide by U.S. service members in Iraq."
Captain B.J. Smethwick: "It is well known that we have the problem relatively under control."
WarGamer
(12,106 posts)Had the authority to shoot the commander in the head if performance was subpar.