Russia makes changes in Black Sea fleet command

 Reuters:

Russia's Black Sea fleet based in annexed Crimea has installed a new commander, RIA news agency cited sources as saying on Wednesday, after Russian military bases on the peninsula were rocked by explosions in the past nine days.

If confirmed, the removal of the previous commander Igor Osipov would mark the most prominent sacking of a military official in the nearly six months since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in which it has suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.

State-owned RIA cited the sources as saying the new chief, Viktor Sokolov, was introduced to members of the fleet's military council in the port of Sevastopol.

One source said it was "normal" that the appointment was not publicly announced at a time when Russia was conducting what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

The Black Sea Fleet, which has a revered history in Russia, has suffered several highly public humiliations in the course of the war that President Vladimir Putin launched on Feb. 24.

In April, Ukraine struck its lead warship, the Moskva, with Neptune missiles, causing it to catch fire and sink.

Last week its Saki air base in southwest Crimea, near the fleet's headquarters at Sevastopol, was devastated by a series of explosions that destroyed eight warplanes, according to satellite imagery.

Then on Tuesday, blasts rocked an ammunition depot at a military base in the north of the peninsula. Russia called that an act of sabotage, and Ukraine hinted it was responsible.

On Wednesday Russia's FSB security service said it had detained six members of what it called an Islamist terrorist cell in Crimea, though it did not say if they were suspected of involvement in the explosions.

The Black Sea Fleet is much larger than Ukraine's navy and is a source of national pride dating back to its foundation under Empress Catherine the Great in 1783.

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Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and has extensively fortified since then, provides the main supply route for Russian invasion forces occupying southern Ukraine, where Kyiv is planning a counter-offensive in coming weeks.
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Ukraine continues to overperform against Russia and demonstrate the inherent weakness of the Russian forces on the land and sea. The Russian military is a much weaker force as a result of its war with Ukraine and the West has helped Ukraine weaken the Russian forces.

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