MOSCOW (Reuters) - Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, was shown on Russian state television on Tuesday attending a defence leaders' meeting remotely, a day after Ukrainian special forces said they had killed him.
In response to the Russian video, the Ukraine special forces said on Telegram: "Since the Russians were urgently forced to publish a response with Sokolov allegedly alive, our units are clarifying the information."
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, interviewed by CNN, neither confirmed nor denied Sokolov's death, but said his demise could only be a good thing for all concerned.
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, had been destroyed.
Kyiv's counteroffensive has yet to seize much territory from Russian forces, which control about 17.5% of Ukraine's internationally recognised territory.
Persons:
Viktor Sokolov, Sokolov, Sergei Shoigu, Dmitry Peskov, Rustem Umerov, Umerov, Shoigu, Bradley, Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Trevelyan, Gareth Jones, Alex Richardson, Ron Popeski, Timothy Gardner
Organizations:
Fleet, Ukrainian Defence, CNN, Reuters, Ukrainian, Belfer, Harvard's Kennedy School
Locations:
MOSCOW, Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine, Ukrainian, United States, Russian, Russia