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Russia ‘Shows’ Admiral That Ukraine Forces Claim They Killed

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia has released video footage showing the Black Sea Fleet’s commander despite Ukraine claiming to have killed him in one of its deadliest strikes.

It’s unclear when the footage, where Viktor Sokolov appears on a video link at a conference with the defense minister, was filmed. Moscow claims the meeting was on Tuesday.

Ukrainian special forces said Monday that Admiral Sokolov, 61, and 33 other officers died in Kyiv’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea, the peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine also claimed that 105 military personnel had been wounded in the strike.

The Russian footage left open the possibility that old video of the commander had been superimposed on a meeting chaired by Russian defense minister Sergei Shogun, critics said.

“Since the Russians were urgently forced to publish a response with Sokolov allegedly alive, our units are clarifying the information,” the Ukraine special forces said on social media.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the Ukrainian claim, referring reporters to the ministry.

DEATH CLAIMS EXAGGERATED?

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov neither confirmed nor denied Sokolov’s death but said his demise could only be a good thing for all concerned.

“He is in our temporary occupied territories … he should not be there at all,” U.S. broadcaster CNN quoted Umerov on its website. “So, if he’s dead, it’s good news for everybody that we are continuing to de-occupy our territory.”

In the video, Shoigu said more than 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in September and that more than 2,700 weapons, including seven American Bradley fighting vehicles, were destroyed.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are suffering serious losses along the entire front line,” Shoigu said, adding that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had so far produced no results.

“The United States and its allies continue to arm the armed forces of Ukraine, and the Kyiv regime throws untrained soldiers to the slaughter in senseless assaults,” Shoigu said.

His claims about the destruction and casualties could not be independently verified.

However, critics say Kyiv’s counteroffensive has had limited success as Russian forces still control about 17.5 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory.

UKRAINE ARMY STRUGGLES

A recent scorecard by the Belfer Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School reportedly showed Russia gained 35 square miles (91 square kilometers) from Ukraine in the past month.

However, Ukrainian forces apparently recaptured about 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) of Russian troops.

Yet, last month, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmvtro Kuleba demanded that critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counter-offensive against Russia’s invasion “shut up,” saying that they were “spitting in the faces” of Ukrainian soldiers.

“Criticizing the slow pace of the counteroffensive equals spitting into the face of the Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometer of Ukrainian soil after another,” Kuleba said.

“I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine, and try to liberate one square centimeter by themselves,” Kuleba added, standing alongside Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

Addressing ministers separately at an informal European Union meeting in Toledo, Spain,
Kuleba stressed that his wartorn country needs more weapons and armored ambulances to evacuate wounded troops.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including many soldiers, are believed to have been killed and injured in Europe’s bloodiest armed conflict since World War Two.