An explosion has “seriously damaged” Russia’s Black Sea flagship involved in the naval assault on Ukraine, state television claimed on Thursday, as Moscow vowed to hit Kyiv’s command headquarters.
With the crisis in Ukraine now in its seventh week, US Vice President Joe Biden unveiled an $800 million military aid package for Ukraine, which included helicopters and armored personnel carriers. International prosecutors have suggested that the fighting has turned Ukraine into a “crime scene,” implying that individuals responsible may face prosecution in the future.
Moscow: Cause of the explosion on the Moskva missile cruiser was unknown
The cause of the explosion on the Moskva missile cruiser was unknown, with both sides reporting different information. The damage was caused by munitions detonating “as a result of a fire,” according to Russia’s defense ministry, which added that the cause of the incident was being probed. On Telegram, however, Sergey Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa military administration, said that “according to available data, the cause of the serious damage’ was ‘Neptune’ domestic cruise missiles.” Ukrainian soldiers fired missiles at the vessel, according to the governor of Odessa, while presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych remarked, “We don’t understand what happened.”
The Black Sea fleet of Moscow is blockading Mariupol and the coast of Odessa, and its ships have bombarded coastal cities. Early in the conflict, the Moskva acquired renown when it demanded capitulation from Ukrainian border forces defending the vital Snake Island, only to be vehemently rebuffed. It was originally stationed in Syria, where it provided naval support to Russian forces at the Hmeimim airfield.
The crew had been evacuated, but “the ship was substantially damaged,” according to the Russian defense ministry. Russia has met intense resistance and now even reprisals in its own territory, prompting Moscow to threaten to target command centers in Kyiv if Ukraine continues to attack Russian soil.
The threat sent shockwaves across Kyiv, which had been enjoying some reprieve after Russian forces retreated from the region after failing to secure the city. Moscow was thought to be redirecting its military efforts in Ukraine to the south and east, with Ukrainian authorities warning of brutal new fighting in the eastern Donbas region.
The United States aid package, which was announced on Wednesday, includes armored personnel carriers and helicopters, as well as other equipment that Washington had previously refused to deliver to Ukraine for fear of worsening the confrontation with nuclear-armed Moscow.
As Ukraine prepared for an escalation of bloodshed, the Pentagon said it was trying to arm the country with weaponry that would “give them a little more range and distance.”
No electricity and no running water
According to the United Nations, more than 40,000 people have fled the nation in the last 24 hours in a desperate attempt to avoid the impending attack. Since the conflict began, 4.6 million people have been displaced abroad. The impending Moscow assault appears to be an attempt to establish a continuous corridor from seized Crimea to Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists control the Donetsk and Lugansk provinces.
Part of that assault is retaking Mariupol, a crucial southern port that Ukrainian forces have battled to hold and where President Volodymyr Zelensky says “tens of thousands” of civilians have perished. More than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in the city on Wednesday, according to Moscow’s defense ministry, while air attacks targeted the massive Azovstal iron and steel plant.
Severodonetsk, the last easterly city still held by Ukrainian forces, is also in the crosshairs, with people enduring severe shelling but vowing not to escape.
According to Sergiy Gaiday, the Ukrainian governor of the Lugansk region, some 400 citizens have been buried there since the war began, and locals are now bracing for a Russian onslaught.
‘Our citizens are being assassinated’
Officials and people are putting together the scope of the carnage left behind in regions where the Russian military has withdrawn. The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which deals with human rights violations, has despatched investigators to Ukraine, telling reporters that the country has turned into a “crime scene.”
“We’re here because we have reasonable grounds to think that crimes within the court’s jurisdiction are being committed,” Karim Khan, the ICC’s head prosecutor, said during a visit to Bucha, a village that has become synonymous with scores of atrocities allegedly committed by Russian troops.
The Russian military, according to Ukrainian authorities, continues to kill civilians in areas they still control. Ukrainian prosecutors charged soldiers with shooting six men and one lady the day before at a residence in the captured southern village of Pravdyne. According to local sources, four more civilians were killed in Russian strikes on Kharkiv’s second city on Wednesday.
These and other alleged atrocities have prompted Biden to accuse Moscow of genocide, a charge the Kremlin has condemned as “unacceptable.” Biden was backed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but France and Germany did not, angering Zelensky, who called French President Emmanuel Macron’s stance “extremely difficult for us.”