Putin axes Russia’s Pacific Fleet commander Sergei Avakyants

The commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet has resigned while overseeing naval exercises and missile launches as part of a “surprise inspection” testing the fleet’s battle readiness.

President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Russian Far East announced Thursday that Admiral Sergei Avakyants has been removed from his post.

Yury Trutnev said Avakyants, 66, who has commanded the Pacific Fleet since 2012, will now head a new organization managing centers for military training and patriotic education, which are slated to open in 11 Russian regions and Ukraine’s illegally annexed Donetsk.

According to state news agency RIA Novosti, Admiral Viktor Liina, who has served as commander of Russia’s Baltic Fleet since 2021, is being eyed as Avakyants’ replacement.

The military shakeup comes less than a week after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu put the Pacific Fleet on high alert for snap drills around disputed islands near Japan’s island of Hokkaido.

The exercises, which Russia has described as “routine,” involved torpedo tests, missile launches, and “imitation strikes” on enemy naval forces.

Japan criticized the drills Monday, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that the exercises were carried out “in strict accordance with international law.”

“Our environment is very turbulent on many fronts. It’s fraught with conflict situations, regional conflicts,” Peskov told reporters. “We are all well aware of the geography of these regional conflicts.”

Russia’s apparent goal for the snap checks was to show the world that it can still project force in the Pacific despite the fact that its military is stretched thin and severely depleted by the war in Ukraine.

Russian state TV on Monday showed a video of Putin receiving a report on the Pacific drills from Shoigu.

Publicly, Putin said that the naval exercises — which concluded Thursday — had shown the Pacific Fleet was at a high level of combat readiness.

With Post wires