The “Moskva” in Sevastopol, September 11, 2008. AP
It would be the first warship sunk since the Argentine cruiser General-Belgrano was torpedoed by a British submarine on May 2, 1982 during the Falklands War: The cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, was sunk on Thursday 14 April after the explosion of ammunition.
When the Russian military was ready to take control of the strategic port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and expand its offensive to southern and eastern Ukraine, this missile cruiser was “severely damaged,” the Russian Defense Ministry informed agencies RIA Novosti and TASS . “Due to a fire, ammunition on board exploded,” and the crew was fully evacuated, the ministry said, adding that an investigation is underway to determine the origin of this fire. Russian news agencies said the cruiser was armed with sixteen Vulcan anti-ship cruise missiles.
A Russian source says the Moskva River has sunk and the blast was due to a Ukrainian Neptune missile attack. A… https://t.co/Tb91QdepAW
“Neptune missiles caused significant damage”
According to some sources, the Russian ship’s attention was distracted by an overflight of a Bayraktar TB2 drone. The Ukrainian authorities, for their part, claimed that the Moscow River was hit by rockets. “Neptune missiles protecting the Black Sea caused significant damage to this Russian ship,” said Ukrainian Odessa Region Governor Maksym Marchenko.
#FlotteDeLaMerNoire 🇷🇺⚓️ #UkraineRussiaWar ➡️ April 13, 2022: Sources 🇺🇦 (Ministry of Defense etc.) confirmed… https://t.co/xBEMdxIBGh
— Chair Colbert (@Jean-Baptiste Antoine Colbert Marquis de Seignelay)
A spokesman for the Odessa military administration Serhi Brachuk wrote on Telegram that according to available data, missiles [ukrainiens] caused the » heavy damage to the ship.
“We don’t understand what happened,” an aide to Ukraine’s President Oleksiy Arestovych said on YouTube, according to which “a surprise has happened to the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.” He burns with intensity. Now. And with these rough seas, it’s impossible to know when they can get help,” he said, assuring that “510 crew members” were on board. According to reports, about fifty Russian sailors were picked up by a Turkish ship.
This 12,490 ton, 180 meter long ship, manned by 66 officers and 419 seamen, was commissioned in 1983 during the Soviet Union era. It belongs to the Slava class of missile cruisers, which were mainly used for anti-ship purposes, with the main targets being NATO aircraft carriers during the Cold War. He took part in the Russian intervention in Syria from 2015.
In the early days of the invasion of Ukraine he took part in an attack on snake island, near the Romanian border, where 19 Ukrainian sailors were captured and later exchanged for Russian prisoners. The ship is featured on a postage stamp put into service by the Ukraine Post on Wednesday.
Саме крейер «Москва», В який поцілили сьогодні ракетами «військові зображено на нових поштових Марка … https://t.co/vanbids.co/
The Moskva is not the first target ship: on March 24, the Ukrainian Navy destroyed the troop transport Orsk in the busy port of Berdyansk80 kilometers west of the strategic port of Mariupol.