A TOP Russian colonel has been killed in a car crash in Ukraine after colliding with a truck carrying his own troops.
Colonel Erik Selimov, commander of Russia’s 136th Motorised Rifle Brigade, died in the occupied Luhansk region.
His vehicle crashed into a truck carrying soldiers from from Russia’s 88th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade.
The brigade commander died alongside three comrades, according to reports.
Two others remain in a critical condition.
Sergey Melikov, head of Republic of Dagestan where he was from, called Selimov’s death an “irreparable loss” for Putin’s armed forces and Russia.
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He added: “He was a visionary strategist, a fair, honest and principled officer, a man of high morals and an attentive commander.”
Selimov’s death follows a grim wave of fatalities involving senior Russian officials, generals, oligarchs and propagandists.
Colonel-General Yuri Sadovenko, 56, was pronounced dead on Christmas Day.
Russian state media reported Sadovenko died of “heart disease”, giving no further details.
That same week the death was confirmed of Lt-Col Stanislav ‘Spaniard’ Orlov, 44, who commanded Putin’s notorious football hooligan battalion that fought in Ukraine.
There are suspicions he was killed by Russian special services at his home in occupied Crimea.
Another senior figure killed was Lt-Gen Fanil Sarvarov, 56, who was blown up in a Ukrainian car bomb in Moscow.
Earlier last year, Lt-Col Buvaysar Saitiev, 49 – a former Putin MP and Olympic wrestling legend – died after plunging from a window in Moscow.
His widow said she believed the fall was an accident, though reports later indicated he suffered cardiac arrest.
In July, 2025, Putin’s transport minister Roman Starovoit, 53, was found dead just hours after being fired.
His death was officially ruled a suicide, but independent outlet SOTA later claimed “fresh traces of beatings were found” on his body.
The same day, another official, Andrey Korneichuk, 42, collapsed and died at the transport ministry, with state media citing possible “acute heart failure”.