| Missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters | |
|---|---|
| Part of theCrimea attacks (2022–present) | |
 | |
| Type | Missile strike |
| Location | Sevastopol Naval Base, Crimea 44°36′46″N33°31′26″E / 44.61278°N 33.52389°E /44.61278; 33.52389 |
| Planned by |  Ukraine |
| Target |  Black Sea Fleet |
| Date | 22 September 2023 (2023-09-22) |
| Executed by | Armed Forces of Ukraine |
| Casualties | Per Ukraine: 34 killed 105 injured Per Russia: 1 missing[1] 6 injured |
On 22 September 2023,headquarters of the RussianBlack Sea Fleet atSevastopol was attacked byStorm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles launched bySu-24s ofUkrainian Air Force. As a result, the headquarters building was partially destroyed.[2][3][4] The strike was part of the war resulting from the ongoingRussian invasion of Ukraine, and was referred to asOperation Crab Trap (Ukrainian: Операція «Крабова пастка»,romanized:Operatsiia "Krabova pastka") byLieutenant GeneralKyrylo Budanov, the head of theMain Directorate of Intelligence (HUR).[5][6][7]
Beginning in July 2022, a series of explosions and fires occurred on theRussian-occupiedCrimean Peninsula from where the Russian Army had launched itsoffensive on Southern Ukraine during theRussian invasion of Ukraine. Occupied since 2014, Crimea was a base for the subsequentRussian occupation of Kherson Oblast andRussian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The Ukrainian government has not accepted responsibility for all of the attacks, although it did later claim responsibility for the strike on the naval headquarters.[8]
On 23 August, HUR released a video of a RussianS-400 surface-to-air missile system inOlenivka, Crimea, 120 kilometres (75 mi) south ofKherson, being struck by Ukrainian missiles, resulting in its total destruction and the deaths of several Russian military personnel in the vicinity. The loss of the S-400 system greatly depreciated Russia's ability to counteract Ukrainian missiles strikes in Crimea.[9]
At noon on 22 September 2023, two or moreStorm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles, supplied byFrance and/or theUK,[1][10][11][12] struck the headquarters of theRussian Navy'sBlack Sea Fleet. The event was filmed[13] and widely shared on social media, and confirmed by Russian installed governorMikhail Razvozhayev. Local officials reported that the Ukrainian missile strike consisted of six missiles and that Russian air defense shot down five of them,[14][15] but that one was able to hit the headquarters.
Ukraine’s HUR ChiefKyrylo Budanov reported, in an interview withVoice of America the day after the attack, that the strike killed "at least nine people" and that 16 were injured, including high-ranking officers.[16] He also reported that, "Among the wounded is the commander of the group [in the Zaporizhia direction], Colonel GeneralAlexander Romanchuk, in very serious condition. The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant GeneralOleg Tsekov, is unconscious. The number of casual military servicemen who are not employees of the headquarters is still being determined." RFE/RL wrote that "Romanchuk commands frontline forces defending Russian-occupied parts of southeastern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region."[17][18]
On 25 September, theSpecial Operations Forces Command of Ukraine's Armed Forces said that 34 Russian officers, including Sokolov, were killed and 105 soldiers injured in the attack.[19]
Russian sources initially reported that only one soldier was unaccounted for, and nobody was injured.[20] As videos of the strike circulated on Russian social media the following day,TASS increased the reported number of injured to six but reiterated that nobody was killed and that the situation was under control. Razvozhayev reported that the fire raging through the headquarters was contained as of 23 September.[21]
Early reports circulated online that AdmiralViktor Sokolov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, was killed in the strike,[22][23][24] but such claims were denied by the Russian government, which showed video footage of Sokolov alive and well, although the time and date the video was filmed is unknown.[25][26][27] The videos were later dated to prior to the attack, with the first being an awarding of soccer medals on 20 September and the second video references awarding of the810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade with theMedal of Ushakov, which publicly available information indicates happened on 29 August 2023.[28] In February 2024, Viktor Sokolov was removed from his position as Commander of the Black Sea Fleet.[29]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Part of theRusso-Ukrainian war (2022–present) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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