Ukraine's Military Claims to Have Killed the Head of Russia's Black Sea Fleet – New York Times

Ukraine's military asserted on Monday that it had killed the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in a missile attack last week, which, if confirmed, would make the strike among the most damaging for the Russian Navy since the sinking of the fleet's flagship last year.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow's Defense Ministry on the status of its fleet commander, Adm. Viktor Sokolov, who is one of the most senior figures in the Russian Navy. Ukraine's claim could not be independently verified.

Ukraine's special operations forces on Friday said they had struck a headquarters of the Russian fleet in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, a storied port that is now under regular bombardment from Ukraine's long-range missiles and exploding drones. Fleet officers were holding a meeting there at the time, the Ukrainian military said.

Russian sources say that no one was in the very exposed building when the Ukrainian missiles hit. The real headquarter is underground in an unknown place.

Today there was an expanded Board meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow (machine translation):

Opening the meeting, the Defense Minister briefly highlighted the situation in the special military operation zone.

"Groups of Russian troops," he said, " continue active operations to defeat the enemy. Thanks to the professionalism and courage of the personnel of the 25th and 138th motorized rifle brigades in the Kupyansk direction, the control zone near the settlements of Sinkovka and Petropavlovsk was significantly expanded. As a result of effective fire damage, the armed forces of Ukraine are suffering serious losses along the entire line of contact.

During the current month, more than 17 thousand people, more than 2,700 weapons and military equipment were destroyed, including 7 American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 77 American M777 artillery systems, 51 self-propelled artillery installations from Germany, France, Poland and the United States of America, as well as two German Leopard tanks and one English tank "Challenger".