Ukrainian Special Forces reported that Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was killed in the Ukrainian attack last week on the fleet’s headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
The Ukrainian military claims that Friday’s attack targeted a meeting of Russian Navy leaders in the city of Sevastopol. There “34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Another 105 occupants were injured. The headquarters building cannot be restored,” the special forces say in a statement.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied that Sokolov was killed in the attack in Crimea. After the explosions, the Russian Defense Department said that a Russian serviceman had died, but later clarified that he was considered missing.
It is also unclear where the Ukrainian Special Forces got their tally of deaths and injuries in the attack. Each side frequently exaggerates enemy losses and says little about its own casualties.
What is known for sure is that at least one Ukrainian missile hit the target in Sevastopol. Officials appointed by Russia to manage Crimea confirmed the Ukrainian attack on Friday and images of the damaged building amid a plume of smoke appeared on social media.
The Ukrainian statement says nothing about the Rostov-on-Don submarine, which was damaged during the same attack. But it does point out that among the deceased were soldiers from the Minsk landing ship. The Russian Defense Ministry has admitted that the missiles damaged two ships undergoing repair. Photographs, including satellite images and several videos indicate that there were several missile hits.
If Sokolov is dead, he is the highest-ranking Russian military officer to kill Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion last year. On June 6, 2023, Sokolov – married with three children – was granted the military rank of admiral. He was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet in September 2022.
Viktor Nikolaevich Sokolov was born in 1962 in the then Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Last year he replaced Igor Osipov in office, another more than likely ‘victim’ of the Ukrainian offensive although in the professional field. According to Ukrainian media reports Igor Osipov was arrested by the Russian special services themselves as punishment shortly after the sinking of the missile cruiser Moskva on April 13, 2022. Osipov was absent from the Victory Day celebrations on May 9 and of the Black Sea Fleet Day in Sevastopol days later, the latter celebrations in which the commander in charge of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy always has one of the main ceremonial roles.
kyiv is opening a new front in Crimea. It has intensified attacks in the Black Sea and on the occupied peninsula as Ukrainian forces continue a slow and costly counteroffensive – lasting almost four months – to recapture Russian-occupied territory.
