Russia Appoints New Navy Chief Amid Black Sea Fleet Setbacks

The chief commander of the Russian navy, Adm. Nikolai Evmenov, has been dismissed. The Kremlin has decided he will be replaced by the commander of the Northern Fleet, Adm. Alexander Moiseyev.

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On Tuesday, the Kremlin's news agency TASS reported that Admiral Alexander Moiseyev was appointed "acting commander-in-chief of the Naval Forces of the Russian Federation". He took over from Adm. Nikolai Evmenov.

This appointment confirmed earlier reports by British intelligence. "The previous commander was removed after the Russian Black Sea Fleet lost nearly a third of its combat strength since the invasion of Ukraine began. Just in the last month, Russia lost two ships," wrote Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, on X.

The first task for the new commander of the Russian navy will be to boost the combat capabilities of the Black Sea Fleet, which has incurred significant losses during the war with Ukraine, assessed by the British Ministry of Defence on Friday.

In the daily intelligence update, it was noted that Evmenov's dismissal followed the removal of two commanders of the Black Sea Fleet between February 2022 and the loss on 5 March of the corvette Sergei Kotov, marking the ninth significant vessel destroyed by Ukrainian forces since the beginning of the conflict.

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Source: X/PAP/WP/TASS