(DCWatchdog.com) – Fighting off the atrocious invasion of Putin’s Russia for 19 months now, a vastly outgunned Ukraine has managed to deal a severe blow to Moscow by blowing up the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and killing its commander.
You can see what happened in a video further down this post.
In a surprise missile strike on Friday, Ukraine’s military destroyed the Russian naval headquarters in Sevastopol, an autonomous city in Crimea, the Black Sea Peninsula that Moscow seized from the Ukrainians in 2014, during its first encroachment against its pro-Western neighbor.
In subsequent posts on Telegram cited by The New York Post, Ukraine’s Special Forces have confirmed that the attack in Sevastopol killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Moscow hasn’t corroborated Sokolov’s death. However, if confirmed, he would be the highest-ranking Russian officer to perish in the full-scale war that Russian leader Vladimir Putin started on February 24, 2022.
“After the strike on the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces, 34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian Armed Forces,” the Ukrainian special forces wrote.
According to Ukraine’s military, the missile strike on the Russian naval headquarters in occupied Sevastopol also saw “another 105 occupiers [who] were wounded.” The initial reports claimed nine dead and 16 wounded.
“The headquarters building cannot be restored. We’re moving forward!” the Ukrainian special forces declared.
The Post notes that the Ukrainian military and intelligence services didn’t explain how they received information that Admiral Sokolov was among the dead in the Sevastopol strike.
According to reports, the attack was carried out with Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles supplied to the Ukrainians by the UK and France.
Sokolov became commander of the Russian Black Sea fleet in 2022 and was promoted to admiral on June 6, 2023.
Russia’s military acknowledged the strike on its naval headquarters in Crimea but claimed that the only casualty was one missing service whose death hadn’t been confirmed.
On Monday, Ukraine’s military announced that its air force, which fired the Storm Shadow/SCALP rockets, performed 12 strikes on the leading officer of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.
There are reports in Ukrainian media that the attack managed to kill numerous Moscow officers because it struck a high-profile meeting whose exact time and location were given up by bribed Russian servicemen.
Observers noted that the Sevastopol attack was remarkable in that the Russian air defense units guarding the city failed to prevent it.
A video appeared online that shows the moment of the rocket strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol. pic.twitter.com/GxZlmAkEVU
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 22, 2023
