Russian Black Sea fleet commander allegedly killed in missile attack.
In the missile attack last week on the command centre of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol, 33 other officers, including a senior admiral of Moscow, were killed in Crimea, according to a claim made by Ukrainian special forces on Monday.
However, Moscow has made no statement to confirm or deny that Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the Black Sea Fleet commander and one of Russia’s top navy officials, had died.
However, Moscow-installed authorities in Sevastopol were taking additional precautions to counter Ukraine’s escalating attacks on Crimea, a crucial region acting as a base from which Russia has launched the majority of its air attacks against Ukraine during the 19-month conflict.
If verified, Sokolov’s murder would be one of Kyiv’s most significant counterattacks against Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
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“34 officers, including the Russian Black Sea Fleet commander, died following the attack on the fleet’s headquarters. 105 additional occupiers suffered injuries. On the messaging platform Telegram, Ukraine’s special forces declared that the headquarters building could not be restored.
As each side has occasionally exaggerated enemy losses in the war and said little about its own losses, it was not immediately clear how Ukraine’s Special Forces counted the dead and injured in the attack, according to Reuters.
After initially announcing that one serviceman had been killed, the Russian defence ministry later changed its statement to say that one serviceman was still missing after the strike. Five missiles were shot down by air defences, the ministry’s statement also stated.
As Russian Black Sea fleet commander was allegedly killed in the missile attack, attacks by Ukraine in the Black Sea and on the Crimean Peninsula have increased, and they’ve started using missiles in addition to assault drones.
According to Kyiv, eliminating the Russian Black Sea fleet would help hasten the war’s conclusion.
Sevastopol’s newly installed Russian governor called a meeting on Monday to discuss enhancing defence and attack warning systems that would better reflect the gravity of recent Ukrainian attacks.
“We understand that we have moved into a new situation that requires a systemic response,” Russian agencies cited the governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, as telling its government.
“Earlier, we and our military faced attacks from unmanned vehicles … Now everything has changed and we must be prepared for this kind of threat.”
