Russia has appointed a new commander at the head of its fleet in the Black Sea, its Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday, Ukraine having had a string of successes in this area despite Moscow's numerical advantage. The same source also confirmed by presidential decree the appointment of Admiral Alexander Moiseyev as commander of the Russian fleet, replacing Nikolai Evmenov, in post since May 2019. Moiseyev had already been seen in his new role during a ceremony held in mid-March in the port of Kronstadt (northwest).
Ukraine has a string of successes in this area
During a conference call with the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced
“the appointment”
of
“Vice Admiral Sergei Pinchuk to the post of commander of the Black Sea Fleet”
, they said. indicated its services in a press release on Tuesday. According to his biography published on the ministry's website, Pinchuk was born in 1971 in Sevastopol, Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed in 2014 by Moscow. In 2011, he was promoted to commander of the Novorossiysk naval base in the Black Sea, before being entrusted with the reins of the Caspian Sea fleet in 2016.
The change in leadership of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea comes after a series of successes for Ukraine in the area, carried out using maritime drones and missiles, which forced Russian ships to withdraw. These attacks notably allowed Ukraine to sink or damage numerous Russian ships and to reopen a maritime corridor to export its cereals. Among their feats of arms since the start of the conflict, Ukrainian forces bombarded the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol in September 2023, more than a year after having succeeded in sinking the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian fleet, in spring 2022.