Ukraine special forces ‘seriously wound significant Russian figure’ in raid into Putin’s

Ukraine said it has seriously wounded a ‘significant’ Russian figure during an incursion by special forces troops into Vladimir Putin‘s Belgorod region.

The claim came from Kyiv military intelligence chief Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov.

‘Not disclosing details, I can say that one of the very seriously wounded [in Russia‘s Belgorod region] was quite a significant personality,’ he said.

‘They immediately requested a helicopter to evacuate him directly to Moscow.’

He refused to reveal more details.

Budanov also said he could not corroborate earlier extraordinary social media claims that a strike, suspected to have involved Storm Shadow missiles, on Sevastopol in Crimea had killed Putin’s overall war commander General Valery Gerasimov.

Ukraine hit a command post and believes high-ranking figures were hit – but there is no evidence that they included Gerasimov, 68, who is also first deputy defence minister.

Asked about the reports on Gerasimov being killed, Budanov said: ‘Let’s just say that I have no information to support this.’

Russia has not commented on the Gerasimov claims, which were 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.’

A total of 15 Russian military personnel were killed in the Sevastopol command post hit on Thursday, Ukrainian sources claimed on Saturday, as cited by the Crimean Wind Telegram channel.

Ukraine’s military claimed on Saturday that it had successfully attacked the Saki military airbase in the west of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.

‘Saki airfield! All targets were hit!’ Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram. He also published a photo appearing to show the airfield, though it was not immediately possible to verify the image.

Russian officials did not comment on the alleged attack, but Russia’s defence ministry said in the early hours of Saturday that it had successfully downed four Ukrainian missiles over the peninsula overnight.

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 supplied by Britain.

Oleshchuk had previously praised the ‘impeccable combat work’ of his air crews in striking the Sevastopol command post at Yukharin Balka, where rumours had suggested Gerasimov was a victim.

Putin-appointed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said: ‘It was the most massive [attack] in recent times.’

Budanov, 38, said of the previously unknown raid across the border into the 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.

It was reported that significant losses were inflicted and after a barrage of Ukrainian shelling in recent days, Russia has evacuated hundreds of residents from Belgorod city, showing that Putin is unable to properly defend a key regional centre.

Belgorod has been hit with near daily Ukrainian attacks over the last few days, the deadliest of which killed 25 people on December 30.

Later on Saturday, the ministry reported that its air defence forces had shot down six anti-ship missiles over the Black Sea.

Traffic was temporarily suspended for a third straight day on a bridge connecting the peninsula, which Moscow seized illegally in 2014, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. The span is a crucial supply link for Russia’s war effort.