Russian media outlets have reported that Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, has been removed from office.
Fontanka, a Russian language media outlet, said that Admiral Alexander Moiseev will become the acting commander-in-chief of the navy.
The private news service based in St Petersburg, did not mention the reason for the appointment and that the navy’s press service has refused to comment on this.
Nikolai Yevmenov has held the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy since May 2019. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, he was sanctioned by the US, the EU, the UK and other countries.
Over the last few months, Ukraine has reported a rise in the Russian fleet in the Black Sea and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Ukrainian drones recently sank a Russian warship in the Black Sea in a series of strikes that has crippled Moscow’s naval capability and limited its operations with the war now in its third year.
In another attack in late December, Ukraine said it destroyed the Novocherkassk landing vessel in Crimea’s port of Feodosia with long-range cruise missiles.
Most of the attacks carried out by Ukraine were done through remote-controlled drone boats laden with explosives. These boats are equipped with advanced GPS and cameras, and have a low radar signature that makes them hard to detect. This has allowed Kyiv to tip the scales of naval warfare in its favour despite Russia’s massive superiority in firepower.
The latest version of the boat is 18 feet long, weighs up to 1,000 kilograms and has a range of up to 800 kilometres , 60 hours of battery life, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Kyiv has also relied on cruise missiles provided by the UK and France for striking Russian assets in Crimea. These missiles were mostly launched from Ukraine’s Soviet-era warplanes and have a range of more than 250 kilometres.
