Ukraine claimed Monday to have blown up the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in a devastating missile attack — its highest-ranking kill in 19 months of war. 

Admiral Viktor Sokolov was identified among those killed by a missile strike on the navy’s Crimean headquarters in Sevastopol on Friday, according to a celebratory Telegram post by Ukraine’s Special Forces.

“After the strike on the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces, 34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian Armed Forces,” the special forces wrote. 

Anton Gerashchenko, a top aide to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, also posted Sokolov’s photo online to report his death.

Ukraine’s military also said that “another 105 occupiers were wounded” in the attack, a sharp increase from the initial reports of 9 dead and 16 wounded. 

“The headquarters building cannot be restored. We’re moving forward!”

Kyiv offered no proof of Sokolov’s death, and it was not immediately clear how Ukraine IDed him or counted the number of dead and wounded in the attack on Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014.

The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters to confirm or deny that Sokolov had been killed.

However, if true, it would make Sokolov the highest-ranking Russian service member to have been killed since his president, Vladimir Putin, ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Sokolov was appointed commander of the Black Sea fleet in 2022 and received the rank of admiral on June 6 this year.

Russia’s military confirmed the strike on the naval headquarters and initially said that one serviceman was killed, but only said the person was missing.

Ukraine’s military offered more information about the missile attack Monday, revealing that the air force conducted 12 strikes on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, targeting areas where personnel, military equipment and weapons were amassed.

It also said that two anti-aircraft missile systems and four Russian artillery units were hit.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks against Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, in recent weeks while the bulk of its forces press on with their slow-moving counteroffensive in the south.

The updated casualty figures were announced as Russian strikes continued near Odesa, damaging an abandoned hotel and a grain silo and killing two people who were buried in the rubble, Ukrainian officials said. 

Russian attacks elsewhere were blamed for killing six other civilians in the past day in Ukraine.

With Post wires