UKRAINE has seriously injured a high-profile Russian figure as part of a special forces mission into Putin’s territory.
Vlad apparently suffered heavy losses in Belgorod as Zelesnkyy’s forces bombarded the city with fire, Ukraine’s intelligence chief has claimed.
Ukraine’s special forces carrying out the secret raid
Footage shows troops trekking through woodland
Putin’s top war commander General Valery Gerasimov
Intelligence boss Kyrylo Budanov said: “Not disclosing details, I can say that one of the very seriously wounded [in Russia’s Belgorod region] was quite a significant personality.
“They immediately requested a helicopter to evacuate him directly to Moscow.”
He did not confirm the specific identity of the wounded Russian.
However, after a reported barrage of Ukrainian shelling in recent days, Russia evacuated hundreds of residents from Belgorod city.
This came as another embarrassing blow for Putin, making him appear unable to properly defend a key regional centre, say reports.
Budanov also said he could not corroborate earlier extraordinary social media claims that a recent missile strike on Sevastopol – in Crimea – had killed Putin’s war commander General Valery Gerasimov, 68.
Ukraine hit a command post and believes high-ranking figures were hit – but there is no evidence they included Gerasimov, who is also first deputy defence minister.
Asked about the reports on the top Kremlin crony being killed, the 38-year-old intelligence chief said: “Let’s just say that I have no information to support this.”
Russia has not commented on the Gerasimov claims which spread widely on Friday.
But Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the South unit of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army battalion, said of the Sevastopol strike: “There are many versions of who could have been hit there.
“I even heard the famous surname Gerasimov.
“This would be good news, but I think that it is unlikely to be the reality.
“But the fact that several high-ranking officers or generals of the Russian occupation army were hit in this command post is real.”
Separately, pictures show damage at the Saki airfield, also in Crimea, near Yevpatoria.
Reports said ambulances were seen rushing to both the Sevastopol site and the Saki airfield after the strikes which are suspected to have been Storm Shadow missiles, as supplied by Britain.
Ukrainian Air Force Commander General Mykola Oleshchuk said:
“All targets have been destroyed….I again thank our pilots for great work.”
He previously praised the “impeccable combat work” of his air crews in striking the Sevastopol command post at Yukharin Balka where the rumours had suggested Gerasimov was a victim.
Putin-appointed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said: “It was the most massive [attack] in recent times.”
Budanov said of the previously unknown raid across the border into Belgorod region: “We are in an open war, and there’s no reason to be surprised.
“Those who wage war on others sooner or later face it themselves.
“Ultimately, that’s what’s happening.”
RBK-Ukraine reported: “Information began to spread on the Internet today that the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov was allegedly killed as a result of yesterday’s strikes on Crimea.”
Yet there is no independent evidence that the general – a foe of slain warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin – was in Crimea, nor that he was hit in the Crimean strike.