Russia’s flagship of the Black Sea Fleet has sunk, Moscow said after the warship was damaged in an explosion.
Russian media reported that Moscow, which Ukraine claims had hit with missiles, was towed back to the port when it sank.
This comes after an earlier report by the Russian Ministry of Defense that the Soviet-era ship was severely damaged by fire.
Russian defense officials said ammunition aboard the 186-meter (610-foot) ship exploded in an unexplained fire, but Ukraine said it hit the ship with its Neptune missiles.
Moscow sails in the Bosphorus, on the way to the Black Sea, in July 2021
(Reuters)
Alexei Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, called the event “colossal.”
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Russia has denied an attack on the warship and said its guided missile launchers were intact.
The loss of the ship will be a huge military and symbolic defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, neither statement from either side on the incident has been confirmed independently.
Vladimir Putin and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi left Moscow at the Black Sea port of Sochi in August 2014.
(via REUTERS)
However, Western officials later claimed that Ukraine’s allegations of a missile strike seemed “credible” – describing the Kremlin’s version of events as “hard to believe”.
“At the moment, we don’t have the capacity to verify this, but certainly the way this has developed is a big blow to Russia,” said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Moscow, which usually houses a crew of about 500 sailors, was about 69 miles south of the port city of Odessa when the fire broke out, according to an unnamed senior U.S. defense official.
The loss of Moscow deals a new blow to the Russian offensive as it prepares for a new attack in the Eastern Donbass region, which is likely to determine the outcome of the conflict.
“Moscow” was built in Ukraine during the Soviet era and is now the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet
(AP)
Commenting on Russia’s failures, CIA Director William Burns said the threat of Russia using tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine could not be taken lightly, but the CIA had not seen much practical evidence to heighten that concern.
During the early stages of the war in February, a group of Ukrainian soldiers posted to Snake Island, known as Snakes, in the Black Sea, refused to surrender, telling an approaching Russian warship, Moscow, to “go to hell”. . “.
Reports of damage to the Russian flagship earlier today set a precedent for Moscow’s claims of progress in Mariupol, the southern port city that has been the site of one of the war’s most brutal battles – at a terrifying cost to civilians.
Residential building destroyed during the Ukrainian-Russian conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol
(Reuters)
A spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said earlier 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.
This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
(Images of the press association)
Its takeover is crucial to Vladimir Putin’s forces, as it will allow Russian troops in the south to join those in the eastern Donbass region, Ukraine’s industrial center and the target of the upcoming offensive.
Although it remains unclear when Russia may launch a major offensive in Donbass, Moscow’s loss has the potential to delay any new, large-scale attack.
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