27 Russian soldiers ‘are shot dead in friendly fire as their chaotic retreat is mistaken for Ukrainian assault’

• Ukraine MP says Putin’s troops came under artillery fire from their own men

Over two dozen Russian soldiers have been shot dead by their own comrades, who mistook their ‘chaotic’ retreat for a Ukrainian assault, according to reports.

Kyiv MP Yuriy Mysiagin has claimed that Vladimir Putin’s troops fired on their own men as they ‘retreated to new positions chaotically and almost in a panic.’

Russian forces assumed their troops were enemy soldiers attempting to retake territory near the Donetsk airport, he said, as Ukraine steps up its counteroffensive in the occupied south and east.

Artillery fire then came down on the fleeing troops, he said on Telegram, resulting in high numbers of casualties and the loss of ‘several pieces of equipment’.

‘The result was 27 dead and 34 wounded,’  Mysiagin said, ‘Approximately half of the wounded had their arms or legs blown off.’

27 Russian soldiers have been shot dead by their own comrades, according to reports. Pictured: File image shows Pro-Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region last year

Ukrainian servicemen carry bags containing bodies of a dead Russian soldiers in the village of Blahodatne in Donetsk Region

Smoke rises above buildings in Donetsk following a shelling of the area as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive in the region

A Ukrainian colonel also corroborated the account in a Facebook post, in which he claimed that the Russians’ poor coordination probably led to the friendly fire.

‘For some unknown reason, the enemy artillery began to fire, not near the front line or behind Ukrainian positions in order to suppress our firepower, but on the positions and rear of this unit,’ Mashovets said in the post on September 10. 

Lack of training as troops are rushed out to the battleground has been widely blamed for repeated incidences of friendly fire in the Russian ranks. 

As recently as last month, a deputy battalion commander of Ukraine’s 129th Territorial Defense Brigade told the New York Times that he witnessed Russians facing fire from their own forces.

He had been fighting in the counteroffensive in Neskuchne, a village that Ukraine successfully stormed and captured from the Russians in June.

Following the blunder, he claimed that the Russians ‘buried quite a lot of their own guys’.

Incredibly, last November a Russian general claimed that 60 per cent of losses in the six months prior had been down to friendly fire.

The botched retreat would be another blow for the Kremlin as it tries to keep its grip on occupied territory in the south, with Ukraine launching its largest attack yet on Crimea overnight. 

Ukraine launched its largest attack yet on Russian-occupied Crimea overnight with cruise missiles blitzing a port ahead of Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Kim Jong Un. Pictured: A large mushroom cloud is seen rising over the Black Sea port overnight

Blistering strikes saw up to seven huge explosions hit a naval port in Sevastopol, setting the shipyard ablaze and wounding at least 24 people, Russian officials said

Blistering strikes saw up to seven explosions hit a key naval port in Sevastopol, setting the shipyard ablaze and wounding at least 24 people, Russian officials said.

Dramatic footage showed the scale of the attack, the largest of the war so far on the city which is the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

A strategically important shipbuilding and repair yard was engulfed in flames but a power plant and other Black Sea naval facilities were also hit, it appeared.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine launched 10 cruise missiles at the shipyard and three sea drones at Russian ships in the Black Sea. 

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