MOSCOW, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet and one of Russia's most senior navy officers, was shown on Tuesday attending a video conference, a day after Ukrainian special forces said they had killed him.

In video and photographs released by the Russian defence ministry, Sokolov was shown apparently taking part in a video conference with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top admirals and army chiefs.

Ukraine's special forces said on Monday they had killed Sokolov, Moscow's top admiral in Crimea, along with 33 other officers in a missile attack last week on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had declined to comment on the Ukrainian claim, referring reporters to the defence ministry.

In the video released by the ministry, Shoigu said that more than 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in September and that more than 2,700 weapons, including seven American Bradley fighting vehicles, had been destroyed.

According to a Sept. 19 scorecard by the Belfer Center at Harvard's Kennedy School, Russia has gained 35 square miles of territory from Ukraine in the past month while Ukrainian forces have taken 16 square miles from Russian forces.

The original article contains 293 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 29%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!