Admiral Viktor Sokolov‘s reported death would be a massive blow to the Russian president’s naval fleet (Picture: East2West)
Ukraine has claimed that the commander of Russia’s feared Black Sea Fleet was killed in one of Kyiv’s most audacious attacks yet in occupied Crimea.
Ukraine launched on Friday a missile attack at the headquarters of Russia’s naval force in Sevastopol, a port town where the fleet is based.
Photographs of the aftermath seemingly showed a crater in the upper floor of the building’s rear with its roof caved in.
The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces claimed today on Telegram that the Storm Shadow attack killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov, 61, and 33 others.
‘After the hit of the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 officers were killed, including the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,’ the Ukrainian special forces said.
‘Another 105 invaders were injured,’ the post added. ‘The headquarters building cannot be restored.’
Ukraine special forces officials claimed he was among the 34 killed by the strike (Picture: MOD/East2West news)
But senior Black Sea Fleet officers have reportedly denied that Sokolov was killed, according to the Telegram channel Emergency/Crimea.
‘Captain of the first rank Vasily Dandykin, who is directly related to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, noted that he was not given such information,’ it said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence has been approached for comment.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has previously claimed that commanders Colonel-General Alexander Romanchuk and Lieutenant-General Oleg Tsekov were also killed in the strike.
Kyrylo Budanov told US broadcaster Voice of America following the attack that nine people were killed and another 16 injured.
Budanov did not comment on Sokolov – none of his claims have not been verified.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence initially on Telegram that one serviceman had been killed in the assault but then changed his status to ‘missing’.
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Kyiv has increasingly sought to upend Russia’s military operations in Crimea, which extends into the Black Sea and was illegally annexed by the Kremlin in 2014.
The peninsula has long been used by Moscow as a hub for storing fuel, ammunition and other war-time supplies to be shipped off to the front lines.
Kyiv’s military said on Friday it had targeted a Russian command post near Verkhniosadove, a few kilometres from Sevastopol.
US think-tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said satellite imagery showed Ukrainian forces ‘struck the 744th Communications Center of the Command of the Black Sea Fleet… as part of an apparent Ukrainian effort to target Black Sea Fleet facilities’.
Kremlin-installed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev confirmed that the fleet’s head office had been attacked, he said on Telegram Friday.
The strike was reported carried out using long-range Storm Shadow missiles, 1,300kg air missiles with a range of up to 190 miles.
Britain donated the weapons to Kyiv in May as Ukraine stepped up its requests for weapons capable of targeting Russian military infrastructure from Nato allies.
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