Vladimir Putin has reportedly replaced the head of his Navy in a move that follows a string of high-profile Ukrainian strikes on the Black Sea Fleet.
The Kremlin-backed newspaper Izvestia said that Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, who had been commander of the Russian Navy since May 3, 2019, had been "dismissed and will be replaced" by Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev.
Yevmenov is still listed as Navy commander on the website of the Russian defense ministry, which has not made an official announcement and has been contacted by Newsweek for comment.
The three-paragraph story in the paper gave few details about the move except for noting another top brass reshuffle in April 2023, when Admiral Sergei Avakyants was replaced as commander of the Pacific Fleet by the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral Viktor Liina.
The St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka reported that Moiseyev, "a hero of Russia" has been appointed "acting commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy and that the post would soon become permanent. Regarding Yevmenov, "the Admiralty's opinion is unequivocal—he will not return to his post."
Moiseyev oversaw expansion of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastapol, which he took charge of in 2018 and in May 2019 he was appointed commander of the Northern Fleet, where he was once an engineer in its electronic warfare division.
His latest appointment follows repeated strikes by Kyiv's forces on the Black Sea Fleet over the course of Putin's full-scale invasion.
The Hudson Institute think tank told Newsweek that Ukraine "is on pace to eliminate half of Russia's once-powerful Black Sea Fleet by 2025" and that "Ukraine has sunk or heavily damaged approximately 30 percent of the fleet since the war began."
The flagship cruiser Moskva was sunk in April 2022 and an attack on the fleet's headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea, reportedly killed over 30 officers.
Naval drones destroyed Russia's missile-armed corvette Ivanovets last month and successfully attacked Russian landing ships, including the Caesar Kunikov, near the southern Crimean city of Alupka, southeast of Sevastopol.
On March 5, the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Sergey Kotov was hit and destroyed in an overnight attack claimed by Ukraine's military intelligence agency.
Atesh, a Ukrainian partisan movement, reported on Sunday that successful Ukrainian strikes had forced Russia to transport ship engines from occupied Crimea to a naval base in Novorossiysk, in Russia's Krasnodar region.
"We are confident that the Black Sea Fleet will turn into a river swamp flotilla. Or it will be completely destroyed," the post by Atesh on Telegram said.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
