The Kremlin on Tuesday refused to answer mounting questions about the fate of sailors aboard its most powerful warship after it was reportedly sunk by Ukrainian missiles last week, claiming it was “unauthorized” to do so. While Ukraine has said several crew members were killed aboard the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship Moskva, Moscow has denied its ship was shot down by Ukraine, claiming it was badly damaged after a “munitions fire” and has repeatedly insisted that all 500 crew members were safely evacuated before it went down “in a storm”. Amid numerous reports of Moscow crew members’ families searching for their missing loved ones and public mourning for dead sailors on social media, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov immediately halted all questioning on Tuesday. “All communications go only through the MoD,” he said, adding, “We have no authority to release anything.” Families of missing crew members have accused the MoD of trying to cover up the deaths to further humiliate the Russian prevent military after several setbacks in Ukraine. According to reports by family members published on social media and Russian opposition news sites, several of those aboard the Moskva were conscripts, a group Putin had vowed to be excluded from the war in Ukraine.
Read it at Agence France-Presse