The Ukrainian Special Forces, in an update, said the attack carried out on Friday killed Viktor Sokolov along with 33 other officers.
“In an attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 Russian officers were killed, including a commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” Ukrainian officials said on Monday (September 25). They also said more than 100 other Russian servicemen.
CNN has not been able to verify Ukraine's claim about Sokolov or the casualty figure. CNN has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Photo: Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters.
Moscow has said one serviceman is missing after an attack on Ukraine's Sevastopol.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian strategic targets in Crimea, a Black Sea region south of Ukraine controlled by Moscow since 2014.
On Friday (September 22), Ukraine launched what was considered its most daring attack to date. Kyiv officials said they successfully attacked a command post on the Verkhniosadove coast, a few kilometers from Sevastopol. The ISW Institute for the Study of War said satellite imagery showed Ukrainian forces “attacked the 744th Communications Center of the Black Sea Fleet Command… while targeting the Russian Fleet’s bases on the Black Sea.”
In a statement posted on Telegram, the Ukrainian Special Forces said a special operation dubbed “Crab Trap” was designed to attack senior members of the Russian Navy while they were attending a meeting, and that the attack resulted in dozens of officers being killed and injured “including the fleet’s senior command group.”
The Russian government appointed Sokolov as the new commander of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea in August 2022, according to several reports from the TASS media agency at the time.
Sokolov has been the director of the Naval Academy since 2020. He served as deputy commander of the Northern Fleet from 2013 to 2020. The change in command came after serious failures and a series of explosions at Russian government facilities in Crimea.
Sevastopol is the largest city in Crimea, which has been controlled by Russia since 2014. Ukraine continues to try to regain this territory.
Prior to Friday’s attack, Ukraine had launched a series of attacks on Crimea. Its military had damaged a Russian military runway at Saky, eroded Russian air defenses on the northwest coast, and launched a series of missile attacks on dry docks and major ship repair facilities at Sevastopol. This had severely affected the operations of combat submarines and landing ships.
The attack on Saky caused “serious damage” to the Russian runway, the Ukrainian Security Service said, although the extent of the damage was not disclosed .
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to CNN)
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