Hotel used for Russian top brass blitzed by British Storm Shadow missile killing commanders including top general

A luxury hotel used to pamper Russian top brass has been blitzed by a British Storm Shadow missile - killing commanders including a top Putin general.

The blast killed Lieutenant-General Oleg Tsokov, the deputy commander of Russia’s Southern Military District said to be “personally known to Vladimir Putin.”

Storm Shadow cruise missiles took out the entire swimming-pooled hotel plus the reserve command post for Russia’s occupying 58th army.

The Dune Hotel at the Azov Sea resort Berdiansk “loved” by Russian top brass was razed to the ground and bodies were still being pulled from the rubble yesterday

Pictures taken before the war show the hotel’s prime beachside position and pool before it was commandeered by high-ranking invaders.

A Ukrainian source said yesterday: “The building was actually razed to the ground and now the rubble is being sorted out.

“Many ambulances drove in that direction.”

A local source added: that “a lot” of Russian military personnel were dead and wounded.

Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said: “The Dune Hotel in Berdyansk was on fire…dozens of Russian military men and at least one general burned down at work.

“The Russian media have already confirmed the death of Oleg Tsokov, who commanded missile strikes in Ukraine.”

It was unclear whether 51-year-old Tsokov was killed at the hotel of the nearby army command post.

Footage taken soon after the blast showed a mushroom cloud rising over the ruins of the building - the latest of a string of Storm Shadow targets.

The air-launched ground-hugging 620mph missiles have a range of up to 320 miles and can be pre-programmed to fly in zig-zags at varying altitude before homing in for the kill.

Tsokov - sanctioned for ordering a civilian strike in Ukraine in December 2022 - is one of a dozen top Putin generals lost so far during the Ukraine War.

Video showed the general addressing Putin at a ceremony in the Kremlin in 2021, praising the tyrant for “personal…close attention” to fuelling Russia's war machine.