Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was seen attending a defence leaders’ meeting remotely on Russian state television. This occurred a day after Ukrainian special forces claimed to have killed him. The defence ministry released video and photographs showing Sokolov as one of several fleet commanders participating in an in-person meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other army chiefs. However, it was unclear when the video was filmed.
According to Ukraine’s special forces, Sokolov, along with 33 other officers, was killed in a missile attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. The port was seized from Ukraine in 2014. In response to the Russian video, the Ukraine special forces stated that they were verifying the information since the Russians had urgently published a response claiming Sokolov was alive. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the Ukrainian claim and referred reporters to the ministry.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov neither confirmed nor denied Sokolov’s death but stated that his demise could only be positive for all parties involved. Umerov emphasized that Sokolov should not be in the temporarily occupied territories. A video released by the Russian Defence Ministry showed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu chairing a meeting with the leadership of the Armed Forces. Russian fleet commanders appeared on a screen via video link. The Ukrainian Defence Minister, Shoigu, reported that over 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in September, and more than 2,700 weapons, including seven American Bradley fighting vehicles, had been destroyed.
The claims made on the battlefield could not be independently verified by RushHourDaily. Shoigu stated that the Ukrainian armed forces were suffering significant losses along the entire front line and that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had not yielded any results. He also criticized the United States and its allies for arming the Ukrainian armed forces and accused the Kyiv regime of sending untrained soldiers to senseless assaults. Despite Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Russian forces still control approximately 17.5% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory.
According to a report by the Belfer Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Russia has gained 35 square miles (91 square kilometers) from Ukraine in the past month, while Ukrainian forces have taken 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) from Russian forces. The article was reported by Guy Faulconbridge and edited by Mark Trevelyan, Gareth Jones, Alex Richardson, Ron Popeski, and Timothy Gardner. The article adheres to the Thomson RushHourDaily Trust Principles.
