Russia released new videos on Wednesday of a Russian admiral whom Ukraine claimed to have killed, with the footage showing him apparently alive and well, hoisting a trophy into the air to celebrate a soccer victory and stoically telling a local interviewer that “life goes on.”
It was the second day in a row that Russia offered imagery of the admiral, Viktor Sokolov, in what seemed to be a calculated rebuttal of Ukraine’s claim.
On Monday, Ukrainian officials said that Admiral Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, had been killed along with 33 other officers in a missile strike on Sevastopol, Crimea. But the following day they hedged on their claim after Russia released video that appeared to show the admiral attending a large military meeting remotely.
