The Kremlin does not deny the alleged dismissal of the commander of the Russian fleet

On Monday, the Kremlin spokesman did not deny the dismissal of the Russian fleet commander, which was announced by the media after a series of setbacks for Moscow against Ukraine in the Black Sea, simply stating that some decrees are “secret” and therefore cannot be commented on.

A day earlier, the Russian media outlets, Fontanka and Izvestia, had announced the dismissal of this commander, Nikolai Evmenov, from his position and his replacement with Alexander Moiseev, who is currently in command of the Northern Fleet.

There are decrees classified as secret. I can't comment on them. Dmitry Peskov responded to journalists who asked him about this information: “There were no public decrees on this topic.”

The appointment of a new commander of the Russian fleet is usually announced by presidential decree.

If this is confirmed, it will constitute a major adjustment within the Russian military leadership.

During two years of full-scale conflict, Ukraine achieved a series of successes against the Russian Black Sea fleet, allowing a sea lane to be reopened for the export of Ukrainian grain while ignoring bombing threats from Russia.

The Ukrainian military claimed in early February that about a third of Russian warships had been “kept out of harm’s way” in this area.

According to his official biography, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, 61, has been commanding the entire Russian fleet since May 2019. Before that, this trained diver was commander of the Northern Fleet.

Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, is regularly subjected to Ukrainian air and sea drone and missile attacks, because it is logistically important for Russian forces.

At the beginning of March, for example, the Ukrainian Navy claimed that a special unit destroyed “Russia’s newest patrol boat, the Sergei Kotov,” “which was targeted by Majora V5 naval drones” near the Kerch Strait, which connects Crimea to Russia.

The Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR) claimed responsibility for the operation in cooperation with the Navy.

GUR released a video showing the alleged attack. We were able to see a Navy drone approaching Sergei Kotov – 94 meters long – and then there was an explosion with large flames, smoke and debris above this building.

Among other successes, Ukraine bombed the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in Crimea in September 2023, and again, in the spring of 2022, at the beginning of the conflict, managed to sink the Moskva, the admiral ship of the Russian fleet.