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Russia’s Black Sea flagship has been sunk, Moscow’s defence ministry finally admitted tonight, after Kyiv officially claimed earlier to have been behind a double-missile strike late yeaterday off the coast of Ukraine.
The Moskva – a huge Soviet-era missile cruiser – sank as it was towed back to port in stormy weather following an explosion and fire, MailOnline reported today, quoting Russian news agencies.
Ukraine says the fire on board was caused by two Neptune cruise missiles fired by one of its batteries near the port city of Odesa. Hundreds of sailors may have died in the strike.
Kyiv said earlier that it was behind an attack that it claimed caused the warship to “start sinking”, as naval analysts said the vessel and its 510-strong crew were left sitting ducks after sailing in predictable patterns within range of Ukraine’s coastal missile batteries.
The Kremlin had been attempting to downplay the damage, saying earlier today a fire had been contained on board, and that hundreds of crew members had been evacuated to other ships in the Black Sea. It also claimed the vessel remained afloat, and would be towed into port. It made no mention of a Ukrainian attack.
However, tonight Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted the defence ministry as saying, “While being towed … towards the destined port, the vessel lost its balance due to damage sustained in the hull as fire broke out after ammunition exploded. Given the choppy seas, the vessel sank.”
The loss of the warship is the latest Russian military disaster since President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Earlier, a United States defence official said that Russia had moved its other vessels 80 miles away from the Ukrainian shore – a suspected attempt to get out of missile range – after the ship was damaged.
Ukraine’s Southern Military Command said today that it hit the warship late yesterday, causing significant damage and starting a fire on board. Russian rescue ships were hampered by ammunition exploding on board as well as bad weather and the Moskva has now started sinking, the commanders added at the time.
John Kirby, spokesman for the Pentagon, said the ship was 60 miles off the coast of Odesa when it suffered “a fairly major” explosion that caused “extensive damage”.
At the time of speaking, Kirby said the ship remained afloat and able to move under its own steam, and was limping towards the port at Sevastopol, Crimea. He said the US is not able to say whether the blast was caused by Ukrainian missiles, or give a sense of casualties.
The loss of the warship, named after the Russian capital, is a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital.
The ship can carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal from combat reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. It is also a blow to Russian prestige in a war already widely seen as a historic blunder.
Now entering its eighth week, Russia’s invasion has stalled because of resistance from Ukrainian fighters bolstered by weapons and other aid sent by Western nations. The news of the flagship’s damage overshadowed Russian claims of advances in the southern port city of Mariupol, where they have been battling the Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the heaviest fighting of the war – at a horrific cost to civilians.
The Moskva is supposed to be equipped with powerful radar arrays to guide its anti-ship, anti-air and anti-submarine missiles which are also used to operate six “close-in weapons systems” that are designed to take out incoming missiles.
It is not clear exactly how the Ukrainians were able to penetrate these defences. Sources linked to Russia’s Wagner group suggest Bayraktar drones may have been used to distract or overwhelm radar before the attack, though it is also possible the drones were being used as spotters to direct the incoming missiles on to target.
The same Russian military sources claim the Moskva was hit twice on its port side by the missiles, rolled over and caught fire. Ukrainian media has been awash with claims that the ship has sunk, though Russia’s defence ministry has denied this – saying it remains “buoyant” and will be towed to port.
Russia first admitted, via state media, that the vessel has sustained serious damage after a fire caused ammunition on board to explode but made no mention of a Ukrainian attack – saying only that the cause is under investigation.
The defence ministry also said the crew has been evacuated, but made no mention of casualties.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of defence, believes that “hundreds” of sailors may have died in the blast – a view shared by Ilya Ponomarev, an anti-Putin Russian politician, who said that only 50 of the 510-strong crew have so-far been confirmed as rescued.
That account tallies with information put out by the Lithuanian Minister of National Defense, Arvydas Anušauskas. Posting on social media today, he wrote, “An SOS signal was given from the Russian cruiser Moscow at 1.05am.
“(At) 1.14am, the cruiser lay on its side and after half an hour all the electricity went out. From 2am, the Turkish ship evacuated 54 sailors from the cruiser, and at about 3am, Turkey and Romania reported that the ship was completely sunk. The related losses of Russian personnel are not yet known, although there were 485 people on board (66 of them officers).”
The loss of the Moskva marks the single-largest casualty inflicted by Ukraine on the Russian military during the war so-far and one of the largest ships lost in combat since the end of the Second World War.
It also marks another humiliating loss for Putin’s armed forces, with the Russian leader said to be “furious” after being given the news.
According to Russian media, Putin was informed overnight about the loss of the ship and was erroneously told that the attack was carried out with British weapons.
Putin was “furious” in a way “never seen before”, the General SVR Telegram channel said.
The channel claims inside knowledge from a former secret serviceman with links inside the Kremlin.
Neither Ukraine or Russia has given an official account of what happened to the Moskva – though sources speaking to Telegram channel Reverse Side of the Medal, which has links to the Russian Wager military group, have given a detailed account.
According to those sources, the Moskva was sailing in the Black Sea between the Ukrainian port cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv, when it was targeted on Wednesday evening.
Ukraine reportedly used Turkish-made Bayraktar drones to distract the ship’s missile defences, allowing two Neptune missiles fired from a coastal battery to sneak through.
They struck the ship on the port side, the sources claimed, causing it to partially roll over. Choppy conditions at sea combined with the roll meant the ship began taking on water.
Due to fears that the ship’s ammunition could detonate, the Moskva was evacuated and has now sunk, the sources added.
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