I DON'T THINK THAT WORD MEANS WHAT HE THINKS IT MEANS:

It is happening at a shocking rate. More than once a week, a Russian general is killed in Ukraine. When Lt. Gen. Yakov Rezantsev was killed in a Ukrainian strike on the Chornobaivka air base near Kherson -- a city the Russians had captured and held in the early days of the war -- it brought the total to seven, according to Western and Ukrainian officials. Rezantsev had reportedly told his troops on Feb. 28 -- four days after the Russian invasion began -- that the war was nearly over.

In two decades in Vietnam, the U.S. lost nine generals, most of whom were killed when their helicopters were shot down. During the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, one American general died; he was shot by an Afghan soldier. World War II might offer the closest comparison to what is happening to the Russians in Ukraine. According to Aleksander Maslov's book, "Fallen Soviet Generals," roughly six or seven generals died each month during that war. That's about where Russia is now.

Overall Russian casualty figures are high as well; two weeks ago, NATO officials estimated that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine. But generals don't usually operate near the front lines. As commanders, they direct their juniors from a distance. And they are more closely guarded and protected than their soldiers. In short, they shouldn't be in the line of fire.

"Inconceivable," David Petraeus, a four-star general and former CIA director, told Grid.

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