Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Vice-Admiral Viktor Sokolov (Picture: Reuters)
A Russian admiral – who Ukraine’s military claimed to had killed in a strike on occupied Crimea – has returned to life – but only to be sacked from his job by Vladimir Putin.
Viktor Sokolov was thought to have died in an attack on Sevastopol with British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles in September 2023.
He had – it seems wrongly – been reported as having been killed along with 34 other naval officers in the fleet’s headquarters.
Pro-war Telegram channels have now reported the removal of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet from his post.
There has been no official confirmation of the dismissal, but this comes just a day after Ukrainian drones sank the Russian ‘Caesar Kunikov’ in yet another blow to Putin.
His death was denied at the time and videos were posted by Russian media two days later apparently showing him attending an online meeting with the defence minister Sergei Shoigu and other army chiefs .
But the footage was undated, only fuelling speculation that Sokolov had died in September’s strike.
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