Russia has accused Ukraine’s Western allies of helping plan and conduct last week’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in annexed Crimea.
The Russian naval base was struck by a Ukrainian missile last Friday, destroying vital infrastructure and killing at least 34 officers.
Following the attack, a furious Kremlin spokeswoman said at a briefing: ‘There is no doubt that the attack had been planned in advance using Western intelligence means, Nato satellite assets and reconnaissance planes and was implemented upon the advice of American and British security agencies and in close coordination with them.’
Moscow has frequently claimed that the UK, US and their Nato allies have effectively become involved in the war by supplying weapons and intelligence to Ukraine.
The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been a frequent target since Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine 20 months ago.
Crimea has served as the key hub supporting the invasion and has increasingly come under fire by Ukraine.
Ukraine said the strike that put a large hole in the main building of the headquarters had wounded 105 people.
Russia initially said one serviceman was killed but quickly retracted that statement and said the person was missing.
Moscow has provided no further updates and has not commented directly on Mr Sokolov’s status.
Ukrainian special forces initally claimed to have killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, in the attack.
However, Russia’s Ministry of Defence later posted a video on Tuesday showing Mr Sokolov among other senior officers attending a video conference with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Ukraine’s Special Operation Forces posted a statement on Tuesday saying its sources claimed Mr Sokolov was among the dead, many of whom had not yet been identified. It said it was trying to verify the claim after the video surfaced.
Mr Sokolov could be seen blinking but did not speak in the clip shown, prompting speculation the Kremlin may have reused old footage of the Admiral in the broadcast.
The Admiral was also shown speaking to journalists about the Black Fleet’s operations in a video posted on a news channel linked to the Russian Defence Ministry.
However, it was not clear when the video was recorded, and the video did not contain any mention of the Ukrainian attack on fleet headquarters.
The MOD’s statements follow comments made on Tuesday by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, who said the arrival of American-made Abrams tanks in Ukraine and a US promise to supply an unspecified number of long-range ATACMS missiles would push Nato closer to a direct conflict with Russia.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.