Series of blows in crimea: Russia shakes up Black Sea fleet command
Russia's Black Sea fleet based in annexed Crimea has installed a new commander, RIA news agency cited sources as saying yesterday, after Russian military bases on the peninsula were rocked by explosions in the past nine days.
If confirmed, the removal of the previous commander Igor Osipov would mark the most prominent sacking of a military official in the nearly six months since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in which it has suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.
State-owned RIA cited the sources as saying the new chief, Viktor Sokolov, was introduced to members of the fleet's military council in the port of Sevastopol.
One source said it was "normal" that the appointment was not publicly announced at a time when Russia was conducting what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
The Black Sea Fleet, which has a revered history in Russia, has suffered several highly public humiliations in the course of the war that President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24.
In April, Ukraine struck its lead warship, the Moskva, with Neptune missiles, causing it to catch fire and sink.
Last week its Saki air base in southwest Crimea, near the fleet's headquarters at Sevastopol, was devastated by a series of explosions that destroyed eight warplanes, according to satellite imagery.
Then on Tuesday, blasts rocked an ammunition depot at a military base in the north of the peninsula. Russia called that an act of sabotage, and Ukraine hinted it was responsible.
Yesterday, Russia's FSB security service said it had detained six members of what it called an Islamist terrorist cell in Crimea, though it did not say if they were suspected of involvement in the explosions.
Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and has extensively fortified since then, provides the main supply route for Russian invasion forces occupying southern Ukraine, where Kyiv is planning a counter-offensive in coming weeks.
On the diplomatic front, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Zelensky and President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv today.
They will discuss "the need for a political solution to this conflict," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Guterres will then visit the Ukrainian port city of Odessa tomorrow-- one of three ports being used in the deal to export grain -- before heading to Turkey.
Meanwhile, China's defence ministry said yesterday that Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises led by the host and including India, Belarus, Mongolia, Tajikistan and other countries.
China's participation in the joint exercises was "unrelated to the current international and regional situation", it said in a statement.
China's defence ministry also said its participation in the exercises was part of an ongoing bilateral annual cooperation agreement with Russia.
Meanwhile, a UN-chartered vessel laden with grain set off from Ukraine for Africa on Tuesday following a deal to relieve a global food crisis, the ministry in charge of shipments said.
The MV Brave Commander left the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi and will sail to Djibouti "for delivery to Ethiopia", the infrastructure ministry said on Telegram.
The ship is carrying 23,000 tonnes of wheat.
It is the first ship chartered by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to leave Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February and the government has said it hopes two or three similar shipments will follow soon.
Ukraine and Russia are two of the world's biggest grain exporters.
The first commercial ship carrying grain left on August 1. Since then, 21 ships have left Ukrainian ports, the port authority said in its statement.
The WFP says a record 345 million people in 82 countries face acute food insecurity and up to 50 million people in 45 countries are on the brink of famine and risk being tipped over the edge without humanitarian support.
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