Mourners in Russia-annexed Crimea on Wednesday paid last respects to a deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, Andrei Paly, who was killed in combat near Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol.
Several hundred people attended as his casket was displayed outside a military building in the port city of Sevastopol and soldiers formed a guard of honour, state news agency TASS reported.
Paly was to be buried in Sevastopol, a city in Crimea -- annexed by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014 -- and the base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
The death of Paly was reported by officials in Crimea on Sunday, making him one of the highest-ranking Russian officers known to have died in combat during what Moscow calls its "military operation" in Ukraine.
The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Paly was killed in the fighting for Mariupol, a strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine that has been besieged by Russian troops for several weeks.
Paly was a "decent person" and "enjoyed great authority in the fleet," Razvozhayev said on Telegram at the time.
According to Russian media, Paly was a deputy commander of Russian forces in 2020 in Syria and participated in Russia's war with Georgia in 2008.
