RIA Novosti: Putin replaced the commander of the Black Sea Fleet

According to RIA Novosti Crimea, members of the military council of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol were presented new commander. By order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, they appointed Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov. Officially, the Black Sea Fleet has not yet commented on this information. The former commander of the Black Sea Fleet was Admiral Igor Osipov. He has been in command since May 3, 2019.

“There was no public event, and probably there won’t be one due to the “yellow” level of terrorist threat introduced in the city,” sources in the Navy told the agency. Another source noted that “when there is a special military operation of the Russian Federation, no one is obliged to publicly announce such appointments – this is normal.”

At the moment, according to RIA Novosti Crimea, Mr. Sokolov is taking cases.

Earlier, a number of media outlets reported on the appointment of Viktor Sokolov to the post of commander of the Black Sea Fleet, among them the Sevastopol edition of ForPost, which wrote about this on August 11, but at that time there was no confirmation of this. Krymskaya Gazeta reported yesterday about the presentation of Mr. Sokolov at the Headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet. However, most of the media paid attention to this only today.

Viktor Sokolov is 59 years old and graduated from the Frunze Higher Naval School in 1985. Since 2019, Mr. Sokolov has headed the Naval Academy. Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N. G. Kuznetsov. Since 2013, he has been Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet. He was awarded the orders “For Merit to the Fatherland” IV degree, Nakhimov, “For Military Merit” and “For Naval Merit”.

The previous commander of the Black Sea Fleet was Admiral Igor Osipov. There is no information about his new appointment.

Julia Abugalieva