Ukraine admits doubt in naval hit
Russia says Black Sea chief is alive
Ukraine’s military said Tuesday that it was “clarifying” whether the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet had died in a recent missile strike on Moscow’s naval headquarters in Crimea, acknowledging uncertainty after Russia released a video appearing to show him at a meeting of top defense officials.
The authenticity and timing of the video released by Russia’s Defense Ministry could not immediately be verified, but Russian state news media said the meeting took place Tuesday.
The clip, posted on Telegram, appears to show the fleet’s chief, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, taking part in a videoconference with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top military officials. The video is edited to show Sokolov multiple times at the meeting, possibly to offer evidence he is alive. There is a Sept. 26 time stamp on the clip, which matches the date in the video’s metadata.
Ukraine’s special operations forces claimed Monday to have killed Sokolov in the attack last week, along with 33 other Russian officers. After Russia released its video of the meeting, Ukraine’s special operations forces said in a statement that, since the “Russians were forced to publish a response with Sokolov allegedly alive,” it was “clarifying the information” over the admiral.
“According to available sources, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet is among the dead,” the statement said. “Many have not yet been identified due to the fragmentation of body parts.” It was not clear how Ukraine could determine the precise outcome of the strike, which took place in Russian-held territory.
Shortly before the video was released Tuesday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said that responding to Ukraine’s claims about the commander’s killing was “exclusively the prerogative” of the Ministry of Defense and that the Kremlin had “nothing to say here.”
In the video clip, Shoigu is seen discussing a drill that he said Russia’s Pacific Fleet completed Monday. An officer who appears to be Sokolov is seen on a video screen, seemingly from another location, but does not speak during the footage. He is seated in a large white chair.
Some social media users have suggested that the chair Sokolov was sitting on was a hospital bed, but a review of an image released by the Ministry of Defense in June shows that Sokolov has sat in a similar chair in the past.
On Monday, Ukraine said that last week’s strike, which heavily damaged the naval headquarters in Sevastopol, on the occupied Crimean Peninsula, had killed 34 officers, including the fleet commander, and wounded 105 others. Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of Ukrainian military intelligence, told Voice of America on Saturday that the strike had badly wounded two Russian generals, Colonel General Alexander Romanchuk and Lieutenant General Oleg Tsekov.
Russian officials have not commented on the status of the commanders, and have not reported any deaths as a result of the attack.
The death of Sokolov, if confirmed, would be one of the biggest blows to the Russian navy since Ukrainian forces sunk the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet last year.
According to the website of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sokolov, 61, has led the Black Sea Fleet since last September.