Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov has commented on the reported death of Russian Black Sea Fleet Commander Viktor Sokolov.
According to CNN, Umerov neither confirmed nor denied the death of the Russian admiral last week as a result of a Ukrainian strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in occupied Crimea.
"He is in our temporarily occupied territories … he should not be there at all. So, if he’s dead, it’s good news for everybody that we are continuing to de-occupy our territory," Umerov told CNN.
On 22 September, the Ukrainian military struck the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Sky News reported that Ukraine used British Storm Shadow missiles for the attack. The attack killed 34 Russians, including reportedly the commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
Initially, the military did not disclose any details of the operation, but the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, thanked the pilots after the strike.
Later, it became known that the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was hit during a meeting of its command. This special operation was called "Crab Trap". Dozens of dead and wounded Russians were reported.
The Russian Ministry of Defence later showed Sokolov in a video from a meeting. It has not yet been established where and when this video was shot. Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said that they were checking the Russian reports that the Black Sea Fleet commander was allegedly alive.