As the Ripar channel, which is close to the Russian Ministry of Defense, wrote, the actual command was assumed by the Chief of Staff instead of Sokolov, who had been in charge of the fleet since the fall of 2022. According to the website of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, this position is held by Vice Admiral Sergei Pinchuk, who was commanding the Former Caspian Sea Fleet.
Alex Parker's newspaper also reported Sokolov's resignation, awarding him the Order of “For Merit to the Fatherland”, the Order of “Military Merit”, and the Order of Nakhimov, who led the campaign of the Russian fleet off the coast of Syria in 2020. The channel returns. It confirms the nomination of 53-year-old Pinchuk, from Sevastopol, who has been subject to personal sanctions by the European Union since February 2022.
Reports of a change in command of Russia's Black Sea Fleet – the second since the start of the war with Ukraine – emerged a day after the large landing ship Sesar Kunikov was sunk in the Black Sea due to an attack by the Ukrainian military. The 112-metre-long vessel was destroyed in an attack by a Magura V5 sea drone near Alupka, off the southern coast of Crimea. There could have been 89 sailors on board the ship, and they survived, according to preliminary information. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on the attack.
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“Cesar Kunikov” is one of seven large landing ships that were part of the Russian Black Sea Fleet before the start of the war in Ukraine. So far, the Ukrainians have neutralized five of these ships. In addition to “Cesar Kunikov”, “Novocherkassk”, “Saratov”, “Gonik-Olenogorsky” and “Minsk” were sunk.
In total, during the two years of war, Russia lost more than 20 ships, including landing craft, submarines and the main cruiser “Moscow”, according to calculations of the Oryx website based on open data. Before the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Black Sea fleet consisted of more than 70 ships.
