- The Moskva, Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea, sank on Thursday after a suspected Ukrainian missile attack.
- Families of some crew members are now questioning Russia’s claim that it completely evacuated the ship.
- A mother of one crew member told The Guardian she was informed on Monday that her son had died.
Loading Something is loading.
Relatives of crew members aboard the sunken Russian warship Moskva say they have been unable to locate loved ones in the days since the sinking.
The Moskva, a missile cruiser that was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, sank on Thursday. Russian state media blamed an explosion on board, but Ukraine said they hit the ship with rockets, which the Pentagon later confirmed.
About 500 crew members are said to have been on board the Moskva. Russia said the ship was fully evacuated, but families of some crew members have begun to question that claim.
Yulia Tsyvova, whose son Andrei was on board, told The Guardian she only received an update on his whereabouts on Monday, when she received a call from Russia’s Defense Ministry to say he was dead.
“He was only 19, he was a draftee,” Tsyvova said. “They didn’t tell me anything else, no information about when the funeral would take place.”
She added, “I’m sure he’s not the only one who died.”
Dmitry Shkrebets told The Guardian about his son Yegor, a cook on the Moskva River, reportedly missing.
“A conscript who is not supposed to see active combat is among those who go missing in action,” Shkrebets said. “Guys, how can one be missed in action in the middle of the high seas?”
Shkrebets said other families contacted him to say their sons were missing after the Moskva sank.
Irina Shkrebets, Yegor’s mother, said she went to a hospital to look for her son and discovered about 200 burned bodies.
She told independent Russian news agency The Insider: “We looked at every child who was burned. I can’t tell you how hard it was, but I couldn’t find mine.”
She added: “There were only 200 people and more than 500 on board the cruiser. Where were the others?
Russia has been accused of covering up the extent of its military deaths since invading Ukraine on February 24. Russia has reportedly transported thousands of dead soldiers from Ukraine to Belarus, and Ukrainian officials have said there are thousands of unclaimed Russian bodies in its morgues.
Some families of Moskva crew members have learned their loved ones are alive – not by seeing them in person, but through a video shared by the Russian military, The Guardian reported.
Some parents fear reprisals from Russia if they question what happened to their sons, the newspaper said.