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In
video and photographs released by the Russian defense ministry,
Sokolov was shown apparently taking part in a video conference
with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top admirals and
army chiefs.
The video was shown on Russian state television.
Ukraine's special forces said on Monday they had killed Sokolov,
Moscow's top admiral in Crimea, along with 33 other officers in
a missile attack last week on the headquarters of Russia's Black
Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had declined
to comment on the Ukrainian claim, referring reporters to the
defense ministry.
In the video released by the ministry, Shoigu said that more
than 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in September and
that more than 2,700 weapons, including seven American Bradley
fighting vehicles, had been destroyed.
"The Ukrainian armed forces are suffering serious losses along
the entire front line," Shoigu said, adding that the Ukrainian
counter-offensive had so far produced no results.
"The United States and its allies continue to arm the armed
forces of Ukraine, and the Kyiv regime throws untrained soldiers
to their slaughter in senseless assaults," Shoigu said.
Ukraine's counter-offensive has yet to yield significant
territorial gains against Russian forces, which control about
17.5% of the internationally recognised territory of Ukraine.
According to a Sept. 19 scorecard by the Belfer Center at
Harvard's Kennedy School, Russia has gained 35 square miles of
territory from Ukraine in the past month while Ukrainian forces
have taken 16 square miles from Russian forces.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and
Gareth Jones)
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