Vladimir Putin loses 56th colonel in Ukraine war as he is killed in US missile attack – World News

Colonel Andrei Vasilyev, 49, was killed in an attack by new missiles supplied by US President Joe Biden, which have a range of around 43 miles, on Friday night

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Ukraine: Armed forces launch US-made HIMARS missiles

Vladimir Putin lost his 56th colonel in the war in Ukraine to an attack by a newly delivered US HIMARS medium-range missile.

The commander of the paratroopers, Colonel Andrej Wassiljew, 49, was killed in an attack on Friday night.

His death is one of the first of the new 43-mile-range weapons President Joe Biden has sent to Ukraine.

It was based at a forward command post of the Russian Army Airborne Forces, but the location was not given.

Vasilyev was commander of the 137th Guards Airborne Regiment of the 106th Guards Airborne Division based in Ryazan.

Married, father of one daughter, he had been awarded the Russian Order of Bravery for other honors.

Footage shows the launch of the first HIMARS rockets in Ukraine late last week.

It is unclear if this is the blow that killed Vasilyev in Friday’s attack.

A separate HIMARS attack on Izyum in the Kharkiv region hit a Russian base, killing or wounding more than 40 people, according to Ukraine.

Russian military hiding in a school in Izyum were hit by the new missile, which has a range of around 43 miles.

The blast devastated the old school compound, which was said to be used as a Russian command post.

Smoke billowed from small fires around the school, where windows were smashed and debris covered the ground.

It was the precision-guided weapon’s first hit on a Russian military command position.

The 55th colonel who died was Lt. Col. Sergei Gundorov, 51, whose helicopter crashed in an inferno near Volnovakha in the Donbass after being hit by a man-portable surface-to-air missile.

His battered Mi-35 touched the ground before rolling across a narrow strip of forest and crashing into a field in a fireball.

Putin has also lost at least 11 generals.

Total Russian losses are estimated at over 30,000, with some estimates closer to 50,000.

124 days have passed on Monday since Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a more modern air defense system for his country after a series of deadly attacks on the capital Kyiv.

Other severely affected regions are Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Lviv.

Elsewhere in the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, more than 100 bodies were found in a house, according to mayor’s adviser Piotr Andryushchenko.

On Sunday, Moscow’s forces entered the city of Lysychansk from five directions, isolating Ukrainian troops, according to a separatist official.