The commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was removed from his post

Admiral Viktor Sokolov has been removed from the post of commander of the Black Sea Fleet, which he held since September 14, 2022.

This was reported by the Rybar tg channel, created by a former employee of the press service of the Ministry of Defense Mikhail Zvinchuk, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

The day before, Russian military officers massively criticized the Black Sea Fleet command for insufficiently effective measures to counter attacks by Ukrainian unmanned boats, as a result of one of which the large landing craft Caesar Kunnikov was allegedly lost off the southern coast of Crimea.

“Under him, about 20% of the Black Sea Fleet was lost. His decision also prohibited the installation of non-standard devices and installations on ships, for example, thermal imagers for detecting kamikaze boats, additional heavy machine guns, drones with a thermal imager and other technological products from the 21st century. Although, even during the Russian-Japanese war, destroyers were equipped with additional searchlights, and during the First World War, ships were covered with anti-torpedo nets. Therefore, the removed admiral could not only bring in the knowledge of the 21st century, but also failed to take out the knowledge of the 20th century,” military correspondent Roman Saponkov comments on his resignation.

Many consider retirement an insufficient punishment for the loss of ships.

“Sorry, but this begs the question: is removal from office the only measure to change approaches to combat work?” asks military observer Alexey Sukonkin.

“If the resignation was due to mistakes made that led to the loss of fleet units, it should be carried out using a service pistol,” Crimean blogger and military volunteer Alexander Talipov demands punishment.

“We will go further - it is necessary not only to remove, but to remove and put on trial for incompetence and complete failure in command, which led to heavy and unjustified losses. And such removals and arrests should take place not only in the navy! I like to be in stripes, I like to command, if I please be able to bear responsibility!”, supports military expert Vladisdav Shurygin.

He believes that the Black Sea Fleet lost three ships - the Caesar Kunnikov, the Ivanovets MRK and the Novocherkassk large landing ship - due to the “gross negligence” of the fleet command.

“All three times, the participant in the attacks was the American strategic UAV RQ-4B Global Hawk, which occupied the duty zone several hours before the attack and left after its completion. And this dispels all doubts regarding who carried out reconnaissance, deployment and target designation of Ukrainian BECs. At the same time, a group of BECs, which traveled from the coast of Odessa to Crimea more than 350 miles (550 km) and were at sea for at least 9 hours, was not detected, which indicates the complete absence of an effective system for detecting such small targets in the Black Sea Fleet. Obviously, the fleet was not ready for the type of war it faced,” writes Shurygin.

Director of the Institute of International Political and Economic Strategies RUSSTRAT Elena Panina notes that the Black Sea Fleet will have its third commander during the Northern Military District.

“We can perceive with some positivity the fact that personnel changes are happening much more quickly than a year and a half ago. That is, the Russian military system has gone into adaptation mode, and the management tactic of “sit it out until it subsides” is not popular. According to unconfirmed (for the third time) information, the task of the new commander is to radically change the tactics of the “traditional” fleet to effectively stop enemy actions, including massive attacks by unmanned kamikaze boats and long-range missiles,” writes Panina.

According to unofficial data, Vice Admiral Sergei Pinchuk, a native of Sevastpol, who previously commanded the Caspian Flotilla and the Novorossiysk Naval Base, was appointed as the new commander. In recent years he served as chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet.

The head of the Coordination Center for Assistance to Novorossiya, Alexander Lyubimov, expects new resignations in the Russian Navy.

“Now a new era is dawning at sea, as well as on land. Apparently, naval drones and their carriers are becoming the decisive striking force of the fleet in the fight against the enemy fleet. In particular, unmanned boats.

Now - good news. The creation of new means of combat makes all the world's navies obsolete. And above all, this concerns the fleet of the world hegemon. The US Navy is a wonderful fleet of the 60s-80s of the 20th century. This gives many countries, including Russia, the opportunity to challenge US dominance at sea. To do this, we must not build aircraft carriers in an attempt to do what the Americans did 80 years ago, but build a fleet of new ships. Which may be often deserted. But for this it is necessary to write off/hang on yards a significant number of people commanding the Russian Navy,” Lyubimov wrote.