Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – The Russian military suffered a severe blow Thursday when the country’s Black Sea Fleet’s flagship was severely damaged and its crew evacuated. Ukrainian authorities said their forces hit the ship with missiles while Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moscow, but no attack.
The warship, named after the Russian capital, was 60 to 65 nautical miles south of Odessa when the fire broke out, and the ship was still battling the blaze hours later as it headed east, a Pentagon official said. The loss of the ship would be a serious military failure and a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regrouped for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after withdrawing from much of the north, including the capital.
Despite an early report by a Ukrainian official that the ship sank, Moscow is still moving on its own, at least for now, a senior U.S. defense official said. An official who asked for anonymity to discuss U.S. internal military assessments said the Pentagon could not confirm what caused the fire.
Russia said the fire aboard the ship, which typically has 500 sailors on board, forced the entire crew to evacuate. It is later said that the fire has been contained and that the ship will be towed to port with intact guided missile launchers.
The ship can carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and removing it from combat would significantly reduce Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. Regardless of the extent of the damage, any attack would be a huge blow to Russia’s prestige in a war that is already considered a historic mistake. Entering its eighth week, Russia’s invasion came to a halt due to resistance from Ukrainian militants backed by weapons and other aid sent by Western nations.
Satellite images from PBC’s Planet Labs show Moscow leaving the Crimean peninsula of Sevastopol on Sunday. But clouds on Thursday made it impossible to use satellite imagery to locate the ship or determine its condition.
The news of the flagship’s damage overshadowed Russia’s claims of progress in the southern port city of Mariupol, where they have been fighting Ukrainians since the first days of the invasion of some of the war’s worst battles – at a terrifying cost to civilians.
A spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said on Wednesday that 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered to a metal factory in the city. But Vadim Denisenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, dismissed the allegation, telling Current Time television that “the battle for the seaport continues today.”
It was not clear how many forces were still defending Mariupol.
Russian state television broadcast footage she said was from Mariupol, showing dozens of men in camouflage walking with their arms raised and carrying others on stretchers. A man was holding a white flag.
The capture of Mariupol is critical for Russia because it would allow its forces in the south, which emerged through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to fully connect with troops in the eastern Donbass region, Ukraine’s industrial center and the target of the upcoming offensive.
Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine in Donbass since 2014, the same year that Russia took over Crimea. Russia has recognized the independence of the rebel regions in Donbass.
The loss of Moscow could slow down any new large-scale offensive.
Maxim Marchenko, the governor of the Odessa region, across the Black Sea northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians hit the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused “serious damage.”
Alexei Arestovich, an adviser to the President of Ukraine, said at the time that the ship had sunk, calling the event “colossal”. But Yuri Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, later said he was unable to confirm that the ship had been sunk or even hit by Ukrainian forces. He said he was aware of comments from other Ukrainian officials, but “can neither confirm nor deny” what happened.
“If or when this is confirmed, if it is confirmed, we can only sigh with relief, because that means fewer missiles will reach Ukrainian cities,” he told the Associated Press.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the ammunition on board was detonated as a result of the fire, without saying what caused the fire. It is later said that the ship was sailing and will be towed for repairs. It says his “main missile weapons” are not damaged. In addition to cruise missiles, the warship had anti-aircraft missiles and other guns.
Neptune is an anti-ship rocket recently developed by Ukraine and based on an earlier Soviet design. The missiles are mounted on trucks near the coast, and according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away.
The United States has failed to confirm Ukraine’s allegations of a strike on the warship, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday. However, he called it a “big blow to Russia”.
“They had to choose between two stories: one is that it’s just incompetence, the other is that they were attacked, and neither is a good result for them,” Sullivan told the Washington Economic Club.
During the first days of the war, Moscow was reportedly the warship that called on Ukrainian troops stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in opposition. In a widespread record, the soldier replied: “Russian warship, go (curse) alone.”
The AP could not independently investigate the incident, but Ukraine and its supporters see it as an iconic moment of disobedience. The country recently unveiled a postage stamp in honor of this.
Russia invaded on February 24, but its ground offensive halted strong Ukrainian resistance with the help of Western weapons, and Russia lost potentially thousands of fighters. The conflict has killed huge numbers of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions of others to flee. It has also threatened the global economy and further inflated already high prices in grocery stores and petrol stations around the world.
Russian authorities on Thursday accused Ukraine of sending two low-flying military helicopters across the border and firing on apartment buildings in the village of Klimovo in Russia’s Bryansk region, about 11km (7 miles) from the border. Russia’s Investigative Committee said seven people, including a small child, were injured.
Russia’s State Security Service said earlier that Ukrainian forces had fired mortars at a border post in Bryansk as refugees crossed, forcing them to flee.
Reports cannot be verified independently. Earlier this month, Ukrainian security officials denied that Kyiv was behind an air strike on an oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, about 55 kilometers (35 miles) from the border.
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Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.
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