HAUNTING video shows the pictures of all 55 soldiers from one elite Russian regiment killed in Ukraine lined up on a table.
The dead of the 247th Guards Airborne Regiment include its commander and it comes as a Kremlin spokesman admitted to “significant losses” of troops.
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Vladimir Putin‘s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov said the losses were a “huge tragedy” for Russia.
The pictures of the dead soldiers include Colonel Konstantin Zizevsky who was killed in the south of Ukraine.
Others include Aexander Lysenko, the regiment’s reconnaissance commander and Captain Evgeny Ivanov, commander of the assault platoon.
The camera passes over the faces of the dead soldiers, with green paratrooper’s beret’s and candles laid out on the table.
At the end, a long line of photographs can be seen, testament to slaughter faced by Russia’s forces and in particular its airborne forces in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin unleashed his elite paratroop forces into Ukraine believing he could seize control of Kyiv within 48 hours.
But instead of a quick victory, they have faced stiff resistance from Ukraine’s hero defenders have beaten back Russia’s invading forces and forced them into retreat.
Reports are now emerging of mutinies among Russian troops, with even paratroopers among those refusing to fight.
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It comes as Peskov denied the high losses amounted to a humiliation for Moscow in an interview with Sky News.
He said: “No, it’s a wrong understanding of what’s going on.”
But he later admitted: “We have significant losses of troops and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”
It comes as the Russian death toll in Ukraine reportedly nears 20,000, according to Ukrainian estimates.
A senior NATO official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told AP that figure could be as high as 40,000 captured, injured or dead Russian troops.
This has prompted Russian elite paratroopers to stage a mutiny after witnessing their comrades being wiped out in battle, reports claim.
The soldiers were from key airborne forces headquarters in Pskov in northern Russia.
Among them are said to be soldiers from the 247th Guards Airborne Regiment.
The refusenik troops had been moved to Belarus as part of the invasion force but after their mutiny, they were sent in disgrace back to their base in Pskov.
Some have been dismissed and branded “cowards” while others are set to face the Russian equivalent of a court-martial with likely jail sentences.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu is reported to have sent one of his deputies to Pskov to handle the insubordination.
Ukraine claimed that the 60 or so troops were elite paratroopers but this is not so far confirmed, even though they are from Pskov, a key HQ of Russia’s most elite airborne forces.
Russian opposition outlet Pskovskaya Guberniya reported: “About 60 servicemen from Pskov refused to go to war on Ukrainian territory, according to our sources.
“After the first days of the war, they were first brought to the Republic of Belarus, and then they returned to their base in Pskov.
“Most of them are currently being dismissed, but some are threatened with criminal cases.”
It comes as…
It is the latest of several cases of Russian troops refusing to obey Vladimir Putin’s orders to invade Ukraine and “denazify” the country.
An earlier captive Russian soldier from Pskov, Vladimir Safronov, 23, told his Ukrainian interrogators about problems with rations.
He said soldiers were looting houses and “mostly” eating what they find in houses.
“Things are bad with food, we are constantly saving it,” he said.
“Very often we have a situation that a ration for one person is shared between two people.”
“There is a lot of looting, I’ve personally seen it. I don’t support it, it was mainly senior sergeants and the commander who did it.
“I saw civilians who were hiding, people who were unable to evacuate, who lived in constant fear.
“I felt awfully sorry for them, it was scary to find them.”
Earlier reports said that elite OMON special forces troops from Khakassia had refused to fight.
In another case, troops from the unofficial statelet South Ossetia reportedly went on foot back to their homes after refusing to participate in hostilities in Ukraine.
It comes as earlier this week shocking footage showed bodies of Russian soldiers piled up after they were allegedly ambushed in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine.
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