10.02.2024, Sevastopol.
Admiral Igor Kasatonov, Advisor to the Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Commander of the Black Sea Fleet in 1991-1992, celebrates his 85th birthday on February 10.
The Verkhovna Rada in October 1991 decided to subordinate the Black Sea Fleet to Ukraine. In response, Black Sea Fleet Commander Kasatonov convened the Fleet’s Military Council on January 4 and announced that the Black Sea Fleet remained Russian. The admiral forbade taking the Ukrainian oath “until a political decision is made” at the level of the presidents of the two countries – Russia and Ukraine.
At that time, the Black Sea Fleet had about 100,000 personnel and 60,000 workers and employees, and included 835 ships and vessels of almost all existing classes.
“The sailors carried out my order ‘Do not take the Ukrainian oath!’ In support, I received hundreds of telegrams from Russia from ordinary people, from the leadership – not a single one,” Igor Kasatonov later said.
Only a year later, the then-acting Russian President Boris Yeltsin began negotiations with Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk on the division of the fleet.
As a result, the presidents agreed on the joint basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Sevastopol.
Kasatonov was then appointed First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy in September 1992.
Igor Kasatonov was born in Vladivostok. His father also served in the Navy and was an admiral. After graduating from high school in 1956, Igor Kasatonov entered the Nakhimov Black Sea Higher Naval School. He graduated with honors and later commanded several ships. In 1979, he graduated from the Voroshilov Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. In 2009, Igor Vladimirovich became an advisor to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Admiral Kasatonov is the author of several books and articles on the history of the fleet of the Russian Empire, the Navy of the USSR and the Russian Federation.
Rossa Primavera News Agency congratulates Igor Vladimirovich on his anniversary!
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
