Russia’s Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov, who Ukraine claimed it had killed in a missile strike, was seen attending a meeting in the images and video shared by Russia’s defence ministry on Tuesday (Sep 26).
Sokolov, in military uniform, attended the meeting presided over by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, via video link.
Ukraine had claimed to have killed Sokolov in a missile strike on Russia’s naval headquarters last week in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.
Russian ships still launching strikes, claims Ukraine
Meanwhile, Ukraine has claimed that Russian warships are still launching attacks.
A Ukrainian Navy spokesman said that Russia has continued launching strikes from the Black Sea, comparing the operations to “a chicken running around without a head.”
“At this moment, they (the Russian Navy) lost the person who actually manages all of this, and his staff, who manages the fleet together with him,” Dmytro Pletenchuk said on national television.
“This is a large grouping that requires a great number of managers to run all the processes to make it (the fleet) work as a single mechanism. Imagine that the core part of this mechanism becomes inoperable,” said the Ukraine Navy spokesperson, according to a CNN report.
Pletenchuk stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not control the actual operation of ships at sea” and is dependent on his admirals who know “their means and forces, personnel, how to manage them, how to better deploy them.”
“Therefore, as of now, they will have respective problems with the control of the troops,” he added.
Earlier, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces claimed that Sokolov, along with 33 other officers were killed in the strikes launched on the Black Sea headquarters in Sevastopol on Friday, which was perhaps the boldest step taken by the Ukrainian forces on the Russia-annexed peninsula of Crimea so far.
Ukraine also said that more than 100 other Russian servicemen suffered injuries in the special operations dubbed “Crab Trap,” that took place when senior members of Russia’s Navy were engaged in a meeting.
Moscow stated that one serviceman went missing as a result of the attack carried out by Ukraine on Sevastopol.
The Ukrainian army has been increasingly hitting strategic Russian targets located in Crimea, the Black Sea region of southern Ukraine which was occupied by Moscow in 2014.
Ukraine hopes to reclaim it.
Ukrainian Defence Intelligence spokesperson Andrii Yusov said Russia was using Crimea as a “logistics hub” and that “the ultimate goal, of course, is the de-occupation of Ukrainian Crimea.”
Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on Ukraine-Russia war on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
(With inputs from agencies)
