The commander of russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Viktor Sokolov, was eliminated in a result of a successful high-precision attack of Ukrainian missiles on his headquarters in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol on September 22.
This was reported by the Command of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, specifying that, in addition to the russian commander, another 34 officers were killed, as well as another 105 occupiers were injured.
Read more: The Center for Strategic Communications Analyzed the Significance and Impact of Ukrainian Strikes on Crimea
This is the first case since the time of the russo-Japanese War and the second case in general in the history of the russian naval forces, when a fleet commander died during hostilities. We will remind that Sokolov was appointed in October 2022, and distinguished himself by conducting the first combat campaign of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and the Pyotr Velikiy battlecruiser in the Mediterranean Sea to Syria. It ended with the loss of two aircraft and a laughing stock due to the terrible smoke of the only aircraft carrier in the russian federation, which after the campaignstood up for repairs, which continues to this day.
The last case of the death of a fleet commander in russia was in 1904, when Vice-Admiral Stepan Makarov died. The death of the commander occurred on board the Petropavlovsk battleship, which was blown up by a mine. At the same time, Vice-Admiral Stepan Makarov led a detachment of ships through a mined section of the water area - which he knew about.
Following him, on July 28, 1904, after the ships left Port Arthur, which was under siege, the commander of the 1st Pacific Squadron, Wilhelm Witgeft, died in a battle in the Yellow Sea. But Skridlov formally commanded the Pacific Fleet at that time.
Since that time, even during the Battle of Tsushima, fleet commanders have not died. The commander of the Second Pacific Squadron, Zinovy Rozhestvenskyi, although wounded, died in 1909 in St. Petersburg. It is well known how Russia's war with Japan ended, which was supposed to be "small and victorious".
It should be noted that during the two world wars, not a single commander of the russian fleet was killed.
Another historical parallel should also be mentioned, which may be very close to the current situation. Thus, during the Crimean War, on October 5, 1854, the allied forces carried out the first bombardment of Sevastopol, as a result of which one of the leaders of the city's defense, the chief of staff of the fleet, Vladimir Kornilov, was killed.
And already in 1855, Admiral Pavel Nakhimov, who at that time was appointed commander of the Sevastopol port and temporary military governor of the city, died. But before that he was the commander of the Black Sea squadron.
It is well known how the defense of Sevastopol ended - the sinking of ships in the bay of Sevastopol and the surrender of the city. So the next commander of the Black Sea Fleet of the russian federation will obviously have such an opportunity as well.
As reported, Ukrainian Defense Forces launched another successful strike on the russian-occupied Crimea on Friday 22.
Later the Department of Strategic Communications of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed that on September 22, 2023, around 12:00 p.m., the Defense Forces of Ukraine launched a successful attack on the headquarters of russia’s Black Sea Fleet command in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol.
As Defense Express reported, on Wednesday, September 20, the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit the backup command post of the russian Black Sea Fleet in Verkhnyosadove in temporarily occupied Crimea.
We also wrote, that Satellite Images Showing a Well-aimed Attack by Storm Shadow on russia’s Fleet Command Post Had Been Released.
Read more: Satellite Images of russia’s Black Sea Fleet HQ After Ukraine’s Strike Appeared On the Internet
