Kyiv Post sources in Ukraine's military intelligence service (HUR) have confirmed the that Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, has been forced to resign, an outcome that had been planned for a long time.
“The final straw was the destruction of the Sergey Kotov,” the source told the Kyiv Post when asked about the reasons for the Kremlin's decision.
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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.” Those figures include the Project 22160 missile patrol boat the Sergey Kotov which was sunk last week after being struck by Ukrainian-made MAGURA V5 maritime drones.
The sinking of Russian naval vessels, which included the April 2022 sinking of the Moskva missile cruiser the BSF flagship, is an embarrassment for Russia. It resulted in the Kremlin being forced to withdraw the bulk of its fleet from the Sevastopol naval base in occupied Crimea to the mainland port of Novorossiysk, 340 kilometers further east.
Moscow has so far refused to comment on Yevmenov’s removal even though such action is usually publicly announced by presidential decree.
“There are [some] decrees classified as secret; I cannot comment on them. There have been no public decrees on this matter,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Ria Novosti.
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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.
According to Russian media reports, citing their sources, Admiral Alexander Moiseev, who previously served as commander of Moscow’s Northern Fleet, was appointed as an interim acting commander in Yevmenov's place.
The 61-year-old Yevmenov was appointed as head of the Navy in May 2019.
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