The Kremlin is refusing to touch upon the report that it has changed the navy commander after dropping warships to Ukrainian assaults within the Black Sea.
The Kremlin has declined to touch upon studies that the commander-in-chief of the Russian navy has been fired.
A spokesman in Moscow mentioned on Monday that “no public decree” had been made on the destiny of Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov. Studies over the weekend claimed it had been changed after the lack of a variety of warships to Ukrainian assaults within the Black Sea.
A number of media shops, together with the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, reported that Yevmenov, 61, had been changed by Northern Fleet commander Alexander Moiseyev. Any such appointment would usually be introduced by presidential decree.
“There are decrees labeled secret, I can not touch upon them. There have been no public decrees on this matter,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters.
If confirmed, the removing of Yevmenov – who was appointed navy chief in Might 2019 – can be the most important shake-up in Russia's army management for the reason that dismissal of aerospace chief Sergei Surovikin final yr.
Ukrainian forces say they’ve destroyed greater than two dozen Russian vessels for the reason that battle started in February 2022, together with a army patrol boat final week.
The losses are a humiliation for Moscow, which has been compelled to maneuver ships from its historic Sevastopol naval base in Crimea to Novorossiysk, additional east.
Russia's woes within the Black Sea are available in stark distinction to its floor offensive in japanese Ukraine, the place its forces have been advancing in latest months after greater than a yr of deadlocked combating.
“Comprehensible”
The Kremlin spokesman additionally refused to touch upon a latest CNN report which claimed that by the top of 2022 the US had been ready for a possible nuclear assault by Russia in Ukraine.
“That is the sort of hypothesis that’s printed in varied newspapers,” Peskov informed reporters, with out confirming or denying the report that Russian army commanders had mentioned such a situation on the time.
Peskov was, nonetheless, extra enthusiastic to debate Pope Francis' name for Ukraine to ask for peace.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly spoken of Russia's willingness and openness to negotiations, however Kiev had rejected such proposals, the Kremlin spokesman mentioned.
Ukraine has rejected the pope's name to point out what it known as the braveness of the “white flag” and negotiate an finish to the two-year struggle.
“It is sufficient to perceive that he [the pope] spoke in favor of negotiations,” Peskov informed reporters.
“Sadly, each the Pope's statements and the repeated statements of different events, together with ours, have lately obtained completely harsh rejections.”
Russian International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova additionally jumped on the pope's feedback.
“The way in which I see it, the pope is asking the West to place apart its ambitions and admit it was mistaken,” he mentioned, claiming the West is utilizing Ukraine to attempt to weaken Russia.
Peskov mentioned the battlefield scenario confirmed that the West's hope of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia was mistaken.
“That is the deepest false impression, the deepest mistake, and the course of occasions, primarily on the battlefield, is the clearest proof of this,” he mentioned.
