Ukraine has said it is preparing for revenge attacks by Russia following the “significant and symbolic” sinking of Russia’s flagship cruiser Moscow.
The government in Kyiv said it had destroyed the giant missile cruiser during a combat operation against Russian ships in the Black Sea on Wednesday. The deck of ammunition on the boat exploded after being hit by two Neptune anti-ship missiles, the government said.
According to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Arvidas Anushauskas, the cruiser has sent a distress signal. At 1.14 local time (23:14 BST) on Thursday, Moscow was lying on its side and about half an hour later “all electricity stopped”, he wrote on Facebook.
At 2 o’clock in the morning, a Turkish ship managed to save 54 sailors. An hour later, Turkey and Romania confirmed that the ship had “completely sunk”. Ukrainian authorities said the turbulent weather had stopped Russian boats from evacuating, adding: “Nature was on our side.”
The Kremlin has not given any details about possible casualties among Moscow’s 510th crew and has not released photos of the shipwrecked.
An article published by the state news agency TASS initially claimed that “the entire crew” had been evacuated. It was later edited to remove the word “integrity”. An unconfirmed Ukrainian report says 14 sailors, including the head of Moscow’s medical service, were taken to the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The fate of the remaining 494 is unknown, the statement said. If it is confirmed that they drowned, this will be the largest number of deaths of Russian servicemen in an incident since World War II.
Pavel Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry who has a popular Telegram channel, posted a photo of Moscow Captain Anton Kuprin. Kuprin was killed during the explosion and fire on the ship, Gerashchenko said.
Anton Kuprin, the captain of “Moscow”. Photo: Twitter
Kuprin was the one who ordered Moscow to shell Snake Island in the Black Sea during the first hours of the Moscow invasion. His Ukrainian defenders refused to surrender and said: “Russian warship” fuck you “- a slogan that has become a national meme.
Ukrainians celebrated the shipwreck on Friday. Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov is trolling his Russian counterparts by tweeting a photo of a diver and a giant tortoise. “The flagship Russian warship is a worthy place to dive,” he wrote, adding: “He will definitely visit the wreckage after our victory in the war.”
The “flagship” Russian warship is a worthy dive site. We already have another place to dive in the Black Sea. I will definitely visit the remains after our victory in the war. BTW, I already have 300 dives pic.twitter.com/q2Buc51qeI
– Alexey Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) April 15, 2022
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern security and defense forces, said the sinking had hit “Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions”. She added: “We understand that the attacks will increase. The enemy will try to retaliate. This will increase missile strikes and artillery fire. “
Russia has said it is investigating what caused the sinking of Moscow. His defense ministry has promised to bomb targets in Kyiv in response to what he said were “terrorist and sabotage” attacks on its territory by Ukraine’s “nationalist regime”. On Friday, Moscow said it had struck a plant that manufactures and repairs Ukrainian missiles, including anti-ship missiles, on the outskirts of the city.
Ukraine battle on Friday
On Russian television, presenters and experts have come dangerously close to acknowledging that the loss of the cruiser was the result of an enemy attack, not the result of an accident on board. They also spoke fiercely about the destruction of Ukraine.
“Only the fact that there is an attack on our territory is a casus belli, an absolute cause of war. A real war, without delusions, “said Russian film director and former MP Vladimir Bortko on the popular talk show” 60 Minutes “on state television. The special operation, as he was reminded of the Russian war, ended tonight.
Asked if he was talking about Moscow, he said: “The cruiser Moscow is an absolute occasion for war. One hundred percent. This is our flagship. There is nothing to think about. We need an answer. “
In the Telegram, prominent Russian officials tried to downplay the loss of a ship valued by Forbes at $ 750 million (575 million pounds). “The Moscow cruiser is a year older than me,” wrote Margarita Simonyan, head of the state propaganda channel RT.
Andrei Medvedev, a member of the Moscow City Parliament and a Russian state journalist, paraphrased Russian Imperial Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, writing: “The loss of [the] Moscow does not mean that Russia is lost.
In a lengthy statement, he told his 70,000 Telegram subscribers that the cruiser may indeed have been hit by a Western-backed Western missile and that the incident should be investigated.
“We are not fighting Ukraine, we are fighting NATO,” he wrote. “The strikes against our forces are carried out with the help of NATO systems. And often with their weapons. “Like others, he added that the ship was old.” Moscow, with all due respect, was not a young cruiser, “he wrote.
Ukraine claims to have damaged or sunk eight Russian ships and boats, reducing Russia’s ability to attack southern Ukraine and the port city of Odessa. It says about 20,000 Russian soldiers and officers have been killed since Putin’s military operation began on February 24.
In an intelligence update Friday, the UK Ministry of Defense said Moscow had “played a key role as a command ship and air defense hub”. Now Moscow is likely to reconsider its “maritime position” in the Black Sea, it said. The Soviet-era boat has undergone major repairs, returning to service only last year, it added.
The last time Russia lost its flagship cruiser was in 1904, when the imperial ship Petropavlovsk fell in the tsar’s war with Japan. Ukrainian authorities acknowledge that the sinking of Moscow does not mean that Russia has been defeated. But they perceive it as a signal event.
Russia, meanwhile, is using Tupolev’s long-range bombers for the first time to attack the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Motuzyanik said on Friday. Russia has failed to fully control the port city, he added, despite a six-week siege.
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