The commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Adm. Viktor Sokolov appeared in images and videos distributed on Tuesday by Russia's Defense Ministry, a day after Ukraine claimed to have killed him in a recent missile strike.
Kyiv said earlier this week it had killed Adm. Sokolov along with 34 officers in an unprecedented strike on the fleet's naval headquarters in the annexed Crimean peninsula last week.
"After the strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Another 105 occupiers were wounded. The headquarters building cannot be restored," Ukraine's special forces said on the Telegram messaging app.
However, Sokolov was pictured in military uniform attending via video link a meeting held Tuesday and presided over by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The Defense Ministry released a statement, which did not name Sokolov, saying the meeting had taken place earlier in the day.
In an eight-minute video distributed later by the ministry, Sokolov appears on screen several times, without speaking.
The Kremlin told reporters moments before the statement was published that it had "no information" regarding the status of the commander and deferred questions to the Defense Ministry.
It had said on the day of the attack that one serviceman was missing, after having initially reported that one person had been killed.
The strike marked a major blow for Moscow, which has suffered a string of attacks on the strategically important port of Sevastopol in recent months.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 and is a key military and logistics hub for Moscow's military.
