Russian State Media Confirms Head of Navy Replaced After Black Sea Fleet Losses

The Kremlin has replaced the head of its navy, state media confirmed on Tuesday, March 19, after reports the previous naval chief had been sacked after being held responsible for the heavy losses of Black Sea warships to Ukrainian attacks.

Alexander Moiseyev, the current head of Russia's Northern Fleet, has been appointed to be the acting commander-in-chief.

He replaces Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, who had held the position since May 2019, according to the RIA news agency report.

“Moiseyev was introduced as the Russian Navy's acting commander-in-chief at a ceremony,” the agency said.

It was confirmed by Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) that Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, had been forced to resign, as reported by the Kyiv Post last week.

When asked by Kyiv Post about the reason for the dismissal, the HUR source said that decision had been in the works for some time, but “… the final straw was the destruction of the Sergey Kotov,” a missile patrol vessel that was sunk on March 5 after being struck by Ukrainian-made MAGURA V5 maritime drones.

Ukrainian military action has destroyed almost one-third of the 80 warships that made up the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF), and damaged “quite a few.”

The sinking of Russian naval vessels, which included the April 2022 sinking of the Moskva missile cruiser the BSF flagship, has been an almost never-ending embarrassment for Russia.

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The level of losses forced Moscow to withdraw the bulk of its fleet from the Sevastopol naval base in occupied Crimea to the mainland port of Novorossiysk, 340 kilometers (212 miles) further east.

Despite the rumors, Moscow has refused to comment on on Yevmenov’s removal or Moiseyev's appointment, which marks the biggest shakeup of Russia's military top brass in months, even though such action is usually publicly announced by presidential decree.

Yevmenov's resignation from his post represents the most senior commander to be removed from post since the dismissal of Air Force Chief Sergey Surovikin last year, following the aborted uprising led by the Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.