The wife of one Russian sailor who served on the cruiser Moskva, denied an official version of the Kremlin in a post published on a social network. The woman shared a status on her husband’s death in Ukraine on the day of the sinking on Thursday April 14th off the coast of Odessa after a Ukrainian attack. Moscow denied it was an enemy attack (rather than an accident) and also denied there were any casualties among its men.
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The post of wife
The author of the post is Varvara Vakhrusheva, wife of Ensign Ivan Vakhrushev, 41. “Our hero! He died in fulfillment of his duty. He fought for the life of the ship to his last breath. We are in tears and sadness. You will always be a hero in our hearts,” the woman wrote in the post. Varvara later told reporters that the man would die in the sinking and that she was informed of her husband’s death on April 14: the man’s body was found, but the circumstances of his death were not disclosed. Ms Vakhrusheva said 27 other crew members are missing, although there is no official confirmation.
The sinking of the cruiser Moskva
The Slava Moskvaclass missile cruiser was one of the most important ships in the Moscow military fleet: 186 meters long, 12,500 tons in weight, in service with the USSR Navy since 1982. The ship sank off Odessa on April 14. The Russian Ministry of Defense initially spoke of a fire on board that caused ammunition to explode, but then backed down and said the ship sank while being towed during a storm. Ukraine instead claimed to have caused the ship’s destruction with 2 Neptun missiles (this version was later confirmed by the Pentagon) and claimed that the capital’s Anton Kuprin also died in the sea disaster.
Is the video showing the crew after the shipwreck a fake?
To support its thesis that the accident did not cause any casualties, the Russian Defense Ministry also released a video showing the ship’s balance after the wreck while it was visiting the city of Sevastopol (in Crimea). The video has sparked widespread debate on the web and its authenticity has not yet been established: there are people who say it is fake. Now Varvara’s statements add new elements to the yellow about the fate of the Russian sailors on the ship.