RTH10260 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2023 12:16 pm
Russian Black Sea commander seen working after Ukrainian special forces said they killed him
Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet and one of Russia's most senior navy officers, was shown on Tuesday (September 26) attending a video conference, a day after Ukrainian special forces said they had killed him.
In video and photographs released by the Russian defence ministry, Sokolov was shown apparently taking part in a video conference with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top admirals and army chiefs.
One can imagine that they may try to pass off old footage of Sokolov as current to discredit Ukrainian special forces. There are probably lots of opinions on whether it's faked. Of course, in the fog of war, even claims from credible sources can turn out to be wrong and being wrong about this particular thing won't trash the credibility of the AFU, which has generally been good.
Having a potentially real or potentially faked video of Sokolov won't help Russia overcome the embarrassment of a precision strike hitting the conference room at the precise time that a major meeting was in progress and rendering the entire building unusable. Even if Sokolov survived, this is an embarrassment on the level of Prigozhin waltzing into Rostov-on-Don untouched and taking over the HQ of the Southern Military District without firing a shot. It certainly means that Ukraine's on-the-ground intelligence in Sevastopol and within the Russian Navy command structure is extremely good.
It's also a major embarrassment to the already tattered reputation for Russian military equipment. Sevastopol is protected by top-of-the-line systems operated by the best trained crews, because of the importance of protecting fleet operations. Sevastopol is their only ice-free port in the winter, so if they lose the Black Sea fleet, they're irretrievably finished as a global naval power. All those top-of-the-line systems in a multi-layered configuration were easily beaten by a small number of Western missiles and cheap decoys. There are a whole lot of countries realizing that their national security depends on billions of dollars of what is now worthless junk. Neighbors with Western equipment are licking their chops.
We should expect to see material degradation of capability in the Black Sea Fleet with the significant deaths and casualties among mid-to-senior officers, so even if Sokolov survived with injuries it was a remarkably effective strike.
