Article Author:
Reuters
LONDON — Russia's Black Sea Fleet is set to receive 12 new ships in 2022, along with additional air and land vehicles, newly appointed Commander-in-Chief Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov said Friday. , state-run news agency TASS reported.
"The Black Sea Fleet is participating in a special military operation and has successfully completed all the tasks set for it," TASS reportedly told a group of young officers. there is
State news agency RIA reported Wednesday that Sokolov had been appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet. He replaced Igor Osipov, who has been in charge of it since 2019, after a series of setbacks. The week before, an explosion at an air base in Crimea destroyed many of the fleet's air regiments.
In April, the fleet's flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by a missile strike, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Two months later, the Black Sea Fleet withdrew from the strategically important Snake Island near the Ukrainian port of Odessa.
Russia has called the military operation in Ukraine a "special military operation" aimed at demilitarizing and "de-naz" Ukraine. Both the Kyiv government and the Western government say this is a pretext for a war of imperial conquest. (Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Nick Macfie)
