Ukraine has claimed it killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in an unprecedented and devastating missile strike on Vladimir Putin’s naval headquarters in the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Last week Friday saw missiles slam into the building in Sevastopol, with pictures showing smoke rising from the complex, in a major blow to Moscow’s on-going invasion.
Commander of the Black Sea fleet dead
‘Thirty-four officers were killed, including the commander of the Black Sea fleet.
‘Another 105 occupants were wounded. The headquarters are beyond repair,’ Ukraine’s special forces said in a statement on social media on last week Monday.
Ukraine’s army said the strike had happened during ‘a meeting of the Russian navy’s leadership’, while a Ukrainian military source told the BBC the attack was carried out using Storm Shadow missiles, which are supplied by Britain and France.
Kyiv has now formally claimed that 61-year-old Admiral Viktor Sokolov – who was handpicked by Putin to restore the fleet’s pride after the embarrassing loss of the Moskva flagship to Ukrainian Neptune missiles in April 2022 – is among the dead.
Kyivs claim came after the general leading the country’s counteroffensive said Ukraine’s forces had broke through Russian defences near the town of Verbove.
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Dramatic video footage emerged over the weekeng that showed the moment one of the missiles slammed through the roof of the headquarters.
Thick black smoke poured out of the building which was all-but destroyed.
‘The headquarters building cannot be restored,’ said the Ukrainian statement.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief previously claimed that commanders Romanchuk and Tsekov were wounded in the strike.
He did not make a claim about Sokolov – but Ukraine is now certain he was killed, making him one of Putin’s most senior commanders to be killed in the war – and the first Admiral – an unprecedented scalp in modern-day warfare.
