UPDATE: Russian MOD Posts Image Of ‘Dead’ Black Sea Fleet Admiral Sololov In Video Conference

UPDATE: Tuesday, September 26 at 5:10 pm

THE Russian Defence Ministry posted images on its official Telegram channel today that it claimed were from a video conference held in the Ministry’s Collegium.

In one of the images, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu is seen addressing various high-ranking naval officers and army chiefs, including one who appeared to be Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

It was claimed yesterday by the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces that a missile strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol had killed Sokolov along with 33 other top military personnel.

A post on the pro-Russian Grey Zone channel said: ‘Based on the published footage of the National Defence Control Centre of the Russian Federation, we can say that the statement of the enemy represented by the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine that the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov was killed during the destruction of the Fleet headquarters building in Sevastopol is not true’.

‘Another proof of the fraternity of peoples who bury high-ranking commanders of the opposing sides in a circle. First, we buried Zaluzhny and Budanov, now, they have hastily buried Admiral Sokolov’, it continued.

‘For my part, I would also like to note that the enemy’s information about the deaths of dozens of officers at the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is also untrue’, the post concluded.

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Monday, September 25 at 7:34 pm

A missile attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet located in the Crimean city of Sevastopol is believed to have caused the death of many high-ranking military personnel.

According to the MTR press centre this Monday, September 25, irretrievable losses were sustained when the building took a direct hit on Friday, September 22, reported dw.com.

A total of 34 high-ranking Russian military personnel died as a result of the airstrike claimed the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SOF) on its Telegram channel.

In updated information, among those said to have been killed was Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet. At least 100 more military personnel were also injured according to the reports.

An attack on the large landing ship ‘Minsk’ that occurred on September 13 also resulted in the death of 62 Russian servicemen.

The ship was docked and allegedly waiting to be deployed into combat the following day which meant it had a full crew on board at the time of the strike.

Sokolov would be the highest-ranking officer killed in the conflict

Should the claim that Admiral Sokolov was among the dead turn out to be true then as military journalist Sergei Auslender pointed out, ‘This will be the highest-ranking Russian officer (at the moment) killed in the Ukrainian war’.

He added: ‘This will be the first death of a fleet commander since the Russian-Japanese War (Admiral Makarov) and the first death of a Black Sea Fleet commander since the mid-19th century (Admiral Nakhimov)’.

At this point in time, no official statement on personnel losses has been issued by the Russian Ministry of Defence. However, it did confirm the two strikes and the previous one that hit the Rostov-on-Don submarine.

Moscow claimed that only one serviceman was killed as a result of the attack on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet. It subsequently reported that the military man in Sevastopol had gone missing.