"It Was Admiral Kasatonov": A Photographer Recounts a Meeting with the Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet During the Kravchuk Era
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Editor-in-Chief
Photojournalist Yefrem Lukatsky recalled his meeting with the commander of the Black Sea Fleet of the Soviet and Russian Navies (1991–1992) Russian Admiral Igor Kasatonov during the presidency of Leonid Kravchuk.
Lukatsky spoke about this in an interview with “Shelter.”
According to the photojournalist, there was a time when he could easily walk into the Ukrainian president’s office.
Once, right after independence was declared, I was just walking around there when a man—an admiral—ran up to me… Well, I didn’t really know him personally at the time. He asked, “Journalist?” “Yes.” Original quote: “You don’t need the Black Sea Fleet!”… It was Admiral Kasatonov, who had come to hand over command of the Black Sea Fleet to Ukraine. And Kravchuk told him, “We’re a peaceful country; we don’t need the Black Sea Fleet.” And that was it—he refused. And who did it go to? Russia
Yefrem Lukatsky photographer
“If they had placed it under our command back then, there wouldn’t have been a Crimea problem, you see? A lot of things wouldn’t have happened. All we have is one mistake after another. And now we’re reaping the consequences,” he added.
Kasatonov is currently 87 years old. According to publicly available information cited on Wikipedia, he serves as an advisor to the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
On April 5, 1992, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk signed a decree “On the Transfer of the Black Sea Fleet to the Administrative Jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine,” according to the relevant Wikipedia article.
On April 7, 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree “On the Transfer of the Black Sea Fleet to the Jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.”
The “war of decrees” ended with a meeting between the two presidents in Dagomys. Both presidents revoked their decrees, and an agreement was signed on the further development of interstate relations, which emphasized the need to continue negotiations on the creation of the Russian Navy and the Ukrainian Navy based on the Black Sea Fleet.
Serious disagreements between Ukraine and Russia over Crimea began in 1992. Russia began actively obstructing the process of transferring the Black Sea Fleet to Ukrainian control, employing both counterintelligence measures (jamming communications, radio interception) and even localized use of force. Nevertheless, part of the Black Sea Fleet did switch sides to Ukraine.
The most painful blow for Russia was the swearing-in of the personnel of the Sevastopol Garrison Military Command to the Ukrainian oath, which took place on July 9, 1992.
This prompted Russia to take retaliatory measures: the very next day, a Russian airborne assault group seized the garrison command.
Author
Svitlana Sheremetieva Editor-in-Chief
All materialsShe has been working in journalism since 2013. Before founding “Shelter,” she served as editor-in-chief of the online media outlet “Apostrophe” and as deputy general director of the RBC-Ukraine news agency.