Alexey Pavlyshak/Reuters
Viktor Sokolov photographed at a military ceremony in Crimea in May.
CNN
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Ukraine says it has killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Brave attackStill on the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
Viktor Sokolov and 33 officers were killed in Friday’s attack, Ukrainian special operations forces said in an update.
“After the attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 officers, including the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, were killed,” Ukrainians said on Monday, and more than 100 Russian soldiers were injured.
CNN cannot independently confirm Ukraine’s claims about Solokov or the death toll. CNN has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Moscow says one soldier is missing in Ukraine’s attack on Sevastopol.
Ukraine has increasingly attacked strategic Russian targets in Crimea, the Black Sea region of southern Ukraine occupied by Moscow since 2014.
Kyiv’s military said on Friday it had successfully targeted a Russian command post near Verknyosatov, a few kilometers from Sevastopol. The Institute for the Study of Warfare (ISW) noted that satellite images confirmed that Ukrainian forces “attacked the Black Sea Fleet’s 744th communications center…as part of an apparent Ukrainian effort to target Black Sea Fleet facilities”.
Ukrainian Defense Intelligence spokesman Andrii Yusov said Russia was using Crimea as a “logistical hub” and that the “ultimate goal is to remove the Ukrainian occupation of Crimea.”
