Officials from Ukraine stated their forces fired missiles against Russia’s Black Sea fleet’s flagship overnight, with one claiming it sank on Thursday. The Moskva was heavily damaged by a fire that forced the evacuation of the vessel, but Russia maintained it was still afloat.
The loss of the vessel named after Moscow would be a massive military and symbolic setback for Moscow, which is reorganizing its forces in preparation for a new onslaught in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital.
Russia denied any attack but said that a fire aboard the cruiser, which normally carries 500 sailors, forced the entire crew to flee the ship. The fire had been extinguished, and the ship will be hauled to port with its guided missile launchers intact, the company stated later.
The ship is equipped with 16 missiles, and its elimination from the battlefield would significantly limit Russia’s capabilities in the Black Sea. Regardless of the severity of the damage, any attack would be a massive setback for Russian prestige just seven weeks into a conflict that is already largely regarded as a historic disaster.
Cloud cover made it impossible to locate the ship or determine its condition based on satellite photos, and it took a long time to reconcile the disparate accounts. Even Ukrainian officials were cautious: one claimed the ship sank, and a video from the country’s armed forces depicted it overturning and sinking, but another refused to confirm it.
The news of the ship’s damage came only hours after some of Ukraine’s friends attempted to gather new support for the country. “The fight for Europe’s future is happening here,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda declared during a meeting with leaders from three other EU countries on Russia’s doorstep who fear they could be next in Moscow’s sights.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden approved $800 million in extra military aid to Kyiv last week, after calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine “genocide.” He claimed that Western armaments have supported Ukraine’s war so far, but that “we cannot rest now.”
Russian boasts of successes 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 bloodiest fighting of the war — at a horrendous cost to civilians — were overshadowed by news of the flagship’s damage.
Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry, stated that 1,026 Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade men surrendered in a metals factory in the city on Wednesday. The report was refuted by Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, who told Current Time TV that “the war for the seaport is still going on today.”
It was unclear when or for how long a surrender might have taken place, or how many men were still defending Mariupol.
Russian state media aired footage from Mariupol that showed scores of men dressed in camouflage walking with their hands up and carrying others on stretchers. A white flag was held by one of the men.
The capture of Mariupol is crucial for Russia because it would give it control over a large swath of territory, allowing its forces in the south, which came up through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to link up with troops in the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland and the target of the upcoming offensive.
Since 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, insurgents backed by Moscow have been fighting Ukraine in the Donbas. Russia has acknowledged the Donbas rebel territories’ independence.
However, the loss of the Moskva could jeopardize those efforts.
On Sunday, satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show the Moskva steaming out of the Crimean Peninsula’s port of Sevastopol.
According to Maksym Marchenko, the governor of the Odesa region, which is located across the Black Sea to the northwest of Sevastopol, the Ukrainians fired two Neptune missiles at the ship, causing “severe damage.”
The ship sank, according to Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, who called it a “colossal significance” event. Poor weather and explosions “overturned the cruiser and it began to sink,” according to a video broadcast by Ukraine’s military’s Operation Command South.
Later, Yuriy Sak, a defense minister’s counselor, said he couldn’t confirm whether the ship was sunk or even been attacked by Ukrainian forces. He claimed he was aware of other Ukrainian authorities’ views but “could neither confirm nor deny” what had occurred.
The battleship, he said, could unleash 16 long-range cruise missiles, according to reporters.
“If or when this is confirmed, we can only breathe a sigh of relief because it means fewer missiles will reach Ukrainian cities,” he said.
The ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, which did not specify what caused the fire. The ship was later reported to be afloat and would be brought in for repairs. It claimed that none of its “main missile weaponry” had been damaged. The vessel also featured air-defense missiles and other weaponry in addition to the cruise missiles.
Ukraine recently developed the Neptune anti-ship missile, which is based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks near the coast, and the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
According to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the US was unable to confirm Ukraine’s claims of striking the warship. Nonetheless, he described it as “a major setback for Russia.”
“They’ve had to choose between two stories: one is that it was just ineptitude, and the other is that they were attacked, and neither is a really favorable outcome for them,” Sullivan told the Washington Economic Club.
In the early days of the conflict, the Moskva was said to be the cruiser that called on Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in a standoff. “Russian battleship, go (expletive) yourself,” the soldier says in an audio clip that has gone viral on the internet.
Although reporters were unable to independently verify the incident, Ukraine and its supporters saw it as a symbol of defiance, and the government just issued a postage stamp commemorating it.
According to Western sources, Russia invaded on Feb. 24 with the objective of quickly taking Kyiv, overthrowing the government, and installing a Moscow-friendly replacement. However, the ground offensive stopped in the face of heavy Ukrainian opposition aided by Western weapons, and Russia may have lost hundreds of fighters. Untold thousands of Ukrainian people have died as a result of the conflict, and millions more have been forced to escape.
The war, according to a United Nations work team, threatens to damage the economies of many developing countries, which are already dealing with rising food and energy prices, as well as more tough financial conditions. The battle, according to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, is “supercharging” a food, energy, and financial crisis in impoverished countries already dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic, climate change, and a lack of funding.
The war has also thrown Europe’s post-Cold War balance off, notably in NATO’s eastern flank, where countries worry they will be attacked next.
Poland’s, Lithuania’s, Latvia’s, and Estonia’s presidents visited war-torn districts in Ukraine on Wednesday, demanding justice for what they called war crimes. They met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and went to Borodyanka, a town near Kyiv where evidence of crimes was discovered after Russian soldiers left.
“There’s no denying they committed war crimes. And they should be held accountable for it,” stated Latvian President Egils Levits.
Lithuania’s Nauseda has asked for stronger restrictions targeting Russian oil and gas imports, as well as all of the country’s banks.
In his evening presentation, Zelensky mentioned that the International Criminal Court prosecutor had visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, which had been under Russian control until recently, and had proof of mass executions and over 400 victims.
“It is unavoidable that Russian forces be held accountable.” “Everyone will face a trial, not just for what happened in Bucha,” Zelensky said late Wednesday.
