The Kremlin has fired the commander of its Black Sea Fleet as punishment for a series of humiliating losses to Ukraine, according to Russian war bloggers.
The bloggers said that Admiral Viktor Sokolov was replaced by a chief of staff Vice Admiral Sergey Pinchuk after Ukraine sank the Russian warship Caesar Kunikov with a sea drone last week.
It was the latest in a series of victories for Ukraine, which has a tiny navy, against Russia’s much bigger Black Sea fleet.
“It seems that it had become impossible to ignore the latest heavy losses of the fleet,” the War Informant channel said.
UK military intelligence on Sunday said that Sokolov’s dismissal was “highly likely to be a result of Ukraine’s success in sinking various ships under his command.”
Ukraine said it had destroyed around 30% of Russia’s fleet, enabling it to prevent Russia from blockading Ukrainian ships transporting grain and limiting the ability of warships to strike targets in Ukraine. The grain trade is a crucial part of Ukraine’s economy.
Analysts claim that Ukraine’s use of drones and long-range missiles has been vital for overturning Russia’s advantages at sea.
“At first, Russia may have appeared to hold almost all the naval cards in the Black Sea, but Ukraine’s strategic approach at sea and innovative use of emerging technology has led to several successes,” Nicholas Johnson, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, told Business Insider.
“Ukrainian success in this sea denial approach has largely been due to their innovative and skillful use of emerging technologies. The combination of uncrewed surface vessels and long-range missiles have provided Ukraine’s nearly non-existent navy with an asymmetric capability to hold Russian controlled ports and Black Sea Fleet at risk.”
Ukraine’s attacks have included strikes on Sevastopol, the base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
A June strike on Sevastopol forced Russia to cancel its Navy Day celebrations, while a missile attack on September 13 damaged a Russian submarine and warship. Another missile attack on September 23 targeted Russia’s naval command center, and Ukraine initially claimed that Sokolov was among the 34 officers it had killed in that attack.
But Sokolov later appeared in a Kremlin video of a conference of military leaders, apparently showing he survived.
War bloggers blamed Sokolov for a series of mistakes that they said had been among the reasons for Russia’s defeats in the Back Sea, reported The Moscow Times.
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin advisor, also claimed Sokolov had been removed, without citing sources, reported Reuters. There was no official confirmation of his dismissal.
Sokolov had taken over as commander of the fleet in September 2022, replacing Admiral Igor Osipov, only months after Ukraine sank Russia’s Black Sea flagship, “The Moskva.”
Russia rarely publicly confirms the replacement of senior commanders, and Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
