In an updated toll, Kyiv claims 34 people were killed in its Friday attack on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. Its chief, Viktor Sokolov, is among them, according to the press department of the Ukrainian special forces.
“Another 105 occupiers were injured. The headquarters building cannot be repaired. Keep going!” reads the statement.
Similar statements by individual parties to the conflict cannot be directly independently verified. Russian official sources are silent, the information about one missing person continues to be officially valid.
Even on Saturday, the head of the Ukrainian secret service HUR, Kyrylo Budanov, refused to confirm speculations about Sokolov’s death, saying that he had no information about his condition. But he spoke about the casualties among the generals and admitted that Kyiv is still determining the exact number of casualties.
When asked what role the partisans and local residents played in the planning of the strike, Budanov replied that intelligence was gathering information from all sources. “Intelligence sources are among the main ones,” he told the Voice of America Ukrainian service, according to CTK.
Analysis
Fatal damage to a submarine and landing craft, a hit by two anti-aircraft systems, an occupation of oil platforms and a hunt for patrol boats. Ukraine has shown that neither Crimea nor the Black Sea is a safe springboard for a Russian war.
Over the weekend, the Ukrainska pravda server drew attention to a statement from the press department of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces, which wrote on the Telegram platform that their work made it possible to hit the fleet headquarters during a meeting of its command. They are said to have given their data to the Ukrainian Air Force so that it could strike.
On Friday afternoon, the governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, appointed by Moscow, informed about the Ukrainian attack on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, which was subsequently confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Moscow initially said one soldier was killed in the missile strike, but later said the man was missing. Subsequently, the Ukrainian army confirmed the attack. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that air defense destroyed five missiles.
The Krym.Realii server, which is one of the projects of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), published satellite images of Planet Labs on Saturday showing the aftermath of an air attack on the fleet’s headquarters, which shows the destruction of its headquarters building. The smoke and damage to the object are visible even from space, the portal noted.
