Ukraine's special forces 'seriously injured a key Russian figure' in an attack on Putin's territory – when the British-supplied Storm Shadow missile 'hit high ranks during an attack on the army command post'

Ukraine said it seriously injured an “important” Russian during a raid by special forces in Vladimir Putin's Belgorod region.

The claim came from the head of Kiev's military intelligence, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov.

“Not revealing details, I can say that one of the very seriously injured (in Russia's Belgorod region) was quite an important personality,” he said.

“They immediately requested a helicopter to evacuate him directly to Moscow.”

He declined to release more details.

Budanov also said he could not confirm previous extraordinary claims in social media that a rocket attack on Sevastopol – in Crimea – had killed Putin's general war commander, General Valery Gerasimov, 68.

Asked about reports of Gerasimov's killing, the 38-year-old intelligence chief said: “Let's just say I have no information to support this.”

Significant casualties were reported to have been inflicted and after a barrage of Ukrainian shelling in recent days, Russia evacuated hundreds of residents from the city of Belgorod, showing Putin's inability to properly defend an important regional center, reports said .

Belgorod has been hit almost daily by Ukrainian attacks in recent days, which killed 25 people on December 30.

A total of 15 Russian soldiers were killed on Thursday in the stricken command post in Sevastopol, Ukrainian sources claimed today, quoted by the Crimean Wind Telegram channel.

Ukraine has hit a command post and believes high-ranking figures have been hit. However, there is no evidence that this also includes Gerasimov, who is also First Deputy Minister of Defense.

Russia has not commented on Gerasimov's claims, which were widely reported on Friday.

But Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Southern Unit of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army Battalion, said of the attack in Sevastopol: “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 it is unlikely to be the reality.

“But the fact that several senior officers or generals of the Russian occupation army were hit in this command post is real.”

The Ukrainian army today claimed it has successfully attacked the Saki military airbase in the west of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.

'Saki Airport! All targets have been hit!' Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote this on Telegram. He also published a photo that appeared to show the airport, although it was not immediately possible to verify the image.

Russian officials did not comment on the alleged attack, but the Russian Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Saturday that it had successfully shot down four Ukrainian missiles over the peninsula.

According to reports, ambulances were seen rushing to both the Sevastopol site and Saki airport following the attacks. Presumably they were Storm Shadow missiles, as supplied by Britain.

General Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, said: “All targets have been destroyed… I thank our pilots once again for their great work.”

He previously praised the “impeccable combat work” of his aircrews in attacking the Sevastopol command post at Yukharin Balka, where rumors had suggested Gerasimov was a casualty.

Putin's appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said: “It was the most massive attack in recent times.”

Budanov said of the previously unknown attack across the border into the Belgorod region: “We are in open war and there is no reason to be surprised.

'Those who wage war against others will sooner or later be confronted with this themselves.

“At the end of the day, that's what happens.”

RBK-Ukraine reported: “Today information began to spread on the Internet 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 attacks in Crimea.”

Yet there is no independent evidence that the general – an enemy of slain warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin – was in Crimea, nor that he was hit in the Crimean attack.

Later on Saturday, the ministry said its air defense forces shot down six anti-ship missiles over the Black Sea.

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