Putin ‘was betrayed by his own disgruntled officers who handed intelligence to Kyiv’ for Storm Shadow strike that ‘killed 34’

Russian naval officers leaked top secret details to Ukraine, leading to a devastating missile attack on Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters, it has been claimed.

The dictator’s regime had not paid its officers and they retaliated by handing over sensitive intelligence to a partisan resistance group working closely with Kiev.

According to the Ukrainian Special Operations Force, the attack killed 61-year-old Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and a total of 34 officers, while 105 were injured.

It came as Sokolov met with other commanders for a session on war planning.

“Delays in (salary) payments alone do not force the military forces of the Russian Federation to go against the Russian authorities,” a spokesperson for the anti-Putin partisan group ATSH told Kyiv Post.

The reported breakthrough came as Kiev said senior Russian naval commanders were among dozens killed or wounded in a missile attack on Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea.

Kiev has formally claimed that 61-year-old Admiral Viktor Sokolov – who was handpicked by Putin to restore the fleet’s pride after the embarrassing loss of the Moskva flagship to Ukrainian Neptune missiles in April 2022 – is among the dead.

Russian naval officers who leaked intelligence to them believed that Putin was “waging a criminal war and it must stop.”

The group reportedly paid off their sources.

“The financial reward only helps them to decide on cooperation with the ATESH movement, it serves as an additional incentive,” the spokesperson said.

The Crimean partisan group declined to say how much the leakers had been paid, but “it was enough to cover the risks to the officers and their families,” Kyiv Post reported.

ATESH said the intelligence was immediately passed on to Ukraine’s SBU Security Service and HUR’s military intelligence.

Among those injured in the Storm Shadow missile attack were Russian war commanders Colonel General Alexander Romanchuk, Chief of Staff and Lieutenant General Oleg Tsekov, it was reported.

Intelligence from the group was also crucial to the destruction of the Minsk Grand Landing Ship and damage to the Rostov-on-Don submarine earlier this month, it is claimed.

Sevastopol before (top) and after (bottom) a rocket attack struck the headquarters of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet on Friday in a suspected Ukrainian attack deep in Russian-occupied territory

Ukraine now claims that Russia suffered 62 “irreversible losses” when the Minsk was hit.

“The Russian military is well aware of the existence of the partisan movement and is deploying all their forces and resources to suppress it and identify our operatives,” the ATESH spokesperson said.

“The growing resistance among Crimeans is deeply confusing (the Russians).”

ATESH is confident that it can take further subversive actions against the Russian occupation forces.

“We have ears and eyes both inside and outside, so we are the first to hear and see what is happening there,” says ATESH.

Russia has not confirmed losses in the attacks on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters or the Minsk landing ship.