Russian Navy: In the latest defeat of Moscow’s invasion, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea navy, a guided-missile cruiser that became a prospective target of Ukrainian defiance in the early days of the war, fell on April 14 after being seriously damaged. Ukrainian officials claimed that their forces fired missiles at the vessel, while Russia acknowledged that there was a fire aboard the Moskva but denied any attack.
The loss of the warship named after Russia’s capital is a catastrophic symbolic defeat for Moscow, which is reorganizing its forces for a new onslaught in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital.
The ship sank in a storm while being towed to a port, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The ship’s fires caused the whole crew to escape, according to Russia. The ship normally has 500 sailors on board. The fire had been put out, and the ship will be towed back to port with its missile launchers intact, the company stated later.
The ship’s removal limits Russia’s potency in the Black Sea, as it was capable of carrying 16 long-range cruise missiles. In a conflict that is already widely regarded as a historic disaster, it is also a damage to Russian reputation. Russia’s invasion, now in its eighth week, has stalled due to Ukrainian forces’ resistance, which has been strengthened by guns and other supplies delivered by Western nations.
The Moskva was reputedly the battleship that called on Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in a standoff during the early days of the war. “Russian ships, go (expletive) yourself,” a soldier said in a widely circulated recording. Although the Associated Press was unable to independently verify the incident, Ukraine and its allies regard it as a symbol of defiance. It was recently commemorated with the release of a postage stamp in the country.
Russian boasts of successes
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, said on Wednesday that 1,026 Ukrainian forces surrendered in a metals facility in the city. The assertion 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 underway today.”
How many soldiers were still defending Mariupol was unknown. 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. Mariupol has seen some of the worst atrocities of the conflict.
A small group of Ukrainian defenders is holding out against a Russian siege that has trapped nearly a million residents who are in severe need of food, water, and heat.
The seizure of Mariupol is crucial for Russia because it will allow its soldiers in the south, which arrived via the occupied Crimean Peninsula, to fully connect with troops in the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, and the target of the upcoming onslaught.
According to a senior US defense official, the Russian military is continuing to gather helicopters and other equipment for such an operation, and it would likely deploy more ground combat units “in the coming days.” However, it is still uncertain when Russia will start a larger operation in Donbas.
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.
The fall of the Moskva could cause any new, broad-based onslaught to be postponed.
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 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 “primary missile armaments” were not harmed, according to the report. The vessel also featured air-defense missiles and other weaponry in addition to the cruise missiles.
Ukraine has developed the Neptune anti-ship missile, which is based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are positioned on tracks near the coast, and the missiles can attack targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) distant, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Based on where the Moskva was when the fire started, this would have put it within range.
After the Moskva caught fire, other Russian ships in the northern Black Sea went south, according to a senior US defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal military assessments.
According to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the US was unable to confirm Ukraine’s claims of attacking the warship. Nonetheless, he described it as “a major setback for Russia.”
Mr. Sullivan told the Economic Club of Washington, “They’ve had to choose between two stories: one is that it was just incompetence, and the other is that they were attacked, and neither is a really favourable outcome for them.”