A Friday missile attack on the Crimea-based headquarters of Russia’s navy last week killed 34 officers, including its highly decorated fleet commander, Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov, Ukraine said Monday, September 25th.
In the attack, another 105 soldiers were injured, Kyiv added, though it provided no evidence to support its claims, which cannot be independently verified.
Kyiv also claimed that the attack, part of “Operation Crab Trap” and carried out by Ukrainian Air Force and special units, managed to wound General Alexander Romanchuk, commander of Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine.
As recently as Saturday, Ukraine reported that nine had been killed and Romanchuk wounded.
When asked for a response by Reuters the same day, Moscow said there were no deaths to report. While Russia’s military acknowledged the attack on the building had occurred, and initially said one serviceman had been killed, it later clarified the person was only missing.
On Tuesday, September 26ht, the Russian Defense Ministry released footage, apparently captured that day, which showed Sokolov, among several fleet commanders, being present in an in-person meeting of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other army chiefs. Independent verification of Sokolov’s status remains elusive.
In a response to Sokolov’s sign of life, Ukraine’s special forces, who were behind last Friday’s attack, said on Telegram: “Since the Russians were urgently forced to publish a response with Sokolov allegedly alive, our units are clarifying the information.”
Sokolov has been commanding the Russian Black Sea Fleet since 2022. Starting in 2006, he was given reign over Russia’s Pacific Fleet, which he followed up with the command of its fleet in the Arctic.
The Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been a tempting target for Ukrainian attacks ever since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Besides being a critical military hub and supply line to Russia in its waging of war in Southern Ukraine, the port of Sebastopol is home to its Black Sea Fleet.
Ukraine has frequently tried to disrupt Russian operations in these areas through targeted attacks on buildings, vessels, transportation routes, and bridges.
According to the UK’s Ministry of Defense, the recent strikes on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet have caused “almost certainly severe” but still only “localized” physical damage to it, as it “almost certainly remains capable of fulfilling its core wartime missions of cruise missile strikes and local security patrols.”
Despite this, its post on X noted, “a dynamic, deep strike battle is underway in the Black Sea, which would force Russia” into a reactive posture whilst demonstrating that Ukraine’s military can “undermine the Kremlin’s symbolic and strategic power projection from its warm water port in occupied Sevastopol.”
