Russia's military leadership is preparing to sack Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Sergei Pinchuk following systemic failures to defend naval bases and ships against Ukrainian drone attacks, according to intelligence from the Atesh partisan network.
Atesh—a clandestine Ukrainian-Crimean Tatar resistance movement operating inside Russian-occupied Ukraine and Russia itself—reported that Vice Admiral Akhmerov, Pinchuk's first deputy, is the leading candidate to replace him.
The Ukrainian partisans claim direct involvement in targeting Black Sea Fleet facilities, providing intelligence to Ukraine's Defense Forces since 2022.
"In the last six months alone, at least eight successful Ukrainian naval drone attacks have struck Black Sea Fleet facilities. Detection systems failed entirely in several cases, and duty forces responded 20 to 40 minutes late." — Atesh partisan network
Another commander falls to Ukraine's drone campaign
Pinchuk's potential removal would mark the third Black Sea Fleet commander sacked since Russia's full-scale invasion began—a turnover rate that mirrors the fleet's catastrophic losses.
Igor Osipov commanded the fleet when Ukrainian Neptune missiles sank the flagship cruiser Moskva on 14 April 2022—the largest warship lost in combat since the Falklands War. The UK Defense Ministry assessed his August 2022 dismissal was "likely" connected to the loss.
Viktor Sokolov replaced Osipov but fared no better. Pro-war Russian military bloggers reported his removal in mid-February 2024, days after a swarm of Magura V5 naval drones sank the landing ship Caesar Kunikov near Alupka. The UK Defense Ministry confirmed the change weeks later. The International Criminal Court subsequently issued an arrest warrant for Sokolov in March 2024, citing war crimes related to strikes on Ukrainian civilians.
Sergei Pinchuk—born in Sevastopol, former commander of the Caspian Flotilla—was Putin's choice to stabilize the fleet. The UK Defense Ministry noted in March 2024 that he had "sought to improve the survival chances of Russian vessels by adopting further preventative and defensive measures, including narrowing the entrance gap to port facilities." He was promoted to full admiral in February 2025. Those measures have clearly failed.
Nowhere left to hide
Ukraine's drone campaign has systematically dismantled Russia's Black Sea position. The fleet fled Crimea entirely by mid-2024, retreating to Novorossiysk—600 kilometers from the front lines.
But even there, no harbor is safe.
In December 2025, a Ukrainian Sub Sea Baby underwater drone struck a Kilo-class submarine at its Novorossiysk moorings in what experts called an "impossible" feat against multi-layered defenses. Satellite imagery showed the vessel hadn't moved three days later.
Atesh agents have penetrated deep into Russian naval infrastructure. Recently, the movement reported infiltrating the 37th Separate Special Communications Node in Novorossiysk—the central nervous system coordinating Black Sea Fleet operations with Moscow.
Russia's battered Black Sea Fleet
Ukraine's campaign of missile and drone strikes has destroyed or damaged approximately one-third of Russia's Black Sea Fleet since February 2022, according to both UK Defense Ministry assessments and Ukrainian Navy officials. The UK MOD declared the fleet "functionally inactive" by spring 2024.
Group 13, Ukraine's secretive naval drone unit, operates Magura drones that cost around $50,000 each—a fraction of the vessels they destroy.
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