The cause of the sinking of the Russian warship “Moskva” in the Ukraine war should be clarified. Russia’s version is called propaganda.
- in the Ukraine war* sinks the Russian warship “Moskva”.
- According to Ukrainian and US data, Ukrainian “Neptune” missiles sank the ship, Russia* insists on an accident.
- You can read all current developments relating to the warship “Mowska” here.
+++ 8.15 p.m.: After the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a video purporting to show members of the ship’s crew. Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Yevmenov met with the sailors in Sevastopol, the agency said. The city on the Crimean Peninsula is the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Dozens of young men in black uniforms can be seen in the video, which lasts almost half a minute. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many there are. As dpa reports, some users on Twitter believe that it could not be the 500 or so crew members who are said to have been on the ship at the time of the accident. A Ukrainian military spokeswoman had previously stated that the crew of the “Moskva” could not be saved before the ship sank, Russia had announced that the crew had been completely evacuated (see report from 3:20 p.m.)
Russia’s warship “Moskva”: Crew not evacuated in time, according to Ukraine
+++ 3.20 p.m.: According to a Ukrainian military spokeswoman, the crew of the “Moskva” – about 500 people – could not be saved before the ship sank. The Russian account is different: Already in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, Russia had announced that the crew of the “Moskva” had been completely evacuated.
+++ 1:05 p.m.: According to Kiev, the captain of the sunken Russian missile cruiser “Moskva” is dead. This was announced by Anton Geraschenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, according to n-tv.de. “Anton Kuprin, captain 1st rank, commander of the cruiser ‘Moskva’ died in an explosion and fire on board the former flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” Gerashenko wrote in his Telegram channel, according to n-tv.
The State Border Service of Ukraine also reported that the Russian Defense Ministry had confirmed Kuprin’s death. However, no information about the captain’s death could be found on the ministry’s website or on its social media channels.
Update from Saturday, April 16, 2022, 6:45 a.m.: In Ukraine, a postage stamp depicting a Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to a Russian warship has become a collector’s item. Hundreds of Ukrainians queued for hours at the main post office in Kyiv on Friday to get copies of this stamp. The postage stamp had gained new meaning after the sinking of the “Moskva”, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
However, the background story of the motif lies in the early days of the war in February. At that time, Ukrainian border guards on the small snake island shouted “Fuck you” at a Russian ship that asked them to surrender. The radio message went around the world and became a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance.
Warship “Moskva”: The cause of the sinking has been clarified – Russia insists on an accident
+++ 8.15 p.m.: The reason for the sinking of the Russian warship “Moskva” should be clarified: According to the US, this was caused by the impact of Ukrainian missiles. According to a senior US Defense Department official, who asked not to be quoted by name, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was hit by two Neptune missiles. He thus confirmed information from the Ukrainian military, which had also reported on the Ukrainian rocket impact on the “Moskva”.
Russia, on the other hand, insists on unfortunate circumstances: According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, there was an accident in which ammunition is said to have detonated on board the cruiser. The explosion started a fire that damaged the fuselage. The ship was then evacuated before it sank in a storm. As reported by spiegel.de, experts rate the Russian version as propaganda. The naval expert at London’s “Royal United Service Institute”, Sidharth Kaushal, considers a Ukrainian attack to be plausible. The Ukraine had the weapons for it, and the “Moskva” drove a relatively expected course around Snake Island.
The German weather expert Jörg Kachelmann also considers the Russian representation to be nonsense. “These are lies from a time when you didn’t know what the weather was like elsewhere,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to his publicly available weather data. “The ‘Moskva’ certainly did not sink because of a storm, because there was no storm,” says Kachelmann.
Warship “Moskva” sunk: what consequences the loss has for the Russian Navy
+++ 5 p.m.: The reasons for the sinking of the “Moskva” are still not clear. Ukraine also claims to have sunk the warship with a missile attack. Maybe they could too Turkish Bayraktar-TB2 drones have been used, for example to distract the air defenses.
+++ 2 p.m.: According to the USA, the sinking of the “Moskva” has consequences for the operational capability of the Russian Navy in the Ukraine war. The Russian cruiser played a “key role” in Russia’s efforts to establish “naval dominance in the Black Sea,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN.
With the loss of the Moskva, the Russian fleet not only loses a lot of firepower. Your warships could now be increasingly targeted by shore batteries. Because Ukraine has secured anti-ship missiles from Great Britain in addition to the “Neptune” missiles manufactured in its own country. In order to avoid these missiles, the Russian warships will probably have to increase the distance to the coast. Landing maneuvers like the one in Odessa are therefore much less likely.
Ukraine war: British secret service comments on sunken warship “Moskva”
+++ 1 p.m.: British intelligence has released a status report on the Russian Navy. It states that the situation after the sinking of the warship Moskva must be reassessed: “The ship was one of only three ‘Slava-class cruisers’ in the Russian Navy.” suffered damage to important naval equipment for the second time.” This statement probably refers to the Ukrainian attack on the “Saratov” ship in the port of Bergdyansk on March 24, 2022.
“Both events are likely to prompt Russia to review its maritime position in the Black Sea,” the British intelligence report said.
+++ 07.45 a.m.: According to the US Department of Defense, it is “probable” that there were fatalities and injuries in the sinking of the Russian warship “Moskva”. Up to 500 soldiers were on board, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. “I don’t know how many they brought down. We saw evidence that there were lifeboats and that some sailors were able to abandon ship,” he told CNN.
“But if it was hit by a missile – even if it was just an internal explosion that burned ammunition, like the Russians say – you will likely have dead and wounded on board.” According to a Ukrainian army spokesman, the ship was hit a rocket of the type “Neptun” the warship (see first report). The Kremlin denied this and spoke of an ammunition explosion on board and a consequence of the heavy seas.
First report from Friday, April 15, 2022, 7:00 a.m.: Kyiv/Odessa – On Thursday (April 14, 2022), the Russian army took what is probably its most important warship in the Ukraine war* lost. This is the missile cruiser Moskva, part of the Black Sea Fleet. The Ministry of Defense at Moscow* spoke of the fact that the military ship lost its “balance” and sank in heavy seas. According to the Kremlin, ammunition had exploded on board. Instead, the Ukrainian armed forces claimed the sinking of the “Moskva” for themselves. so far is unclear who or what was actually responsible for the sinking of the warship is.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian army in the port city of Odessa, Sergey Brachuk, had announced that the “Moskva” had been hit by Ukrainian “Neptune”-type missiles. Volodymyr Zelenskyy*, President of Ukraine*, alluded to the sunken Russian warship in a video address and praised those “who have shown that Russian ships can get to the bottom.”
“Heavy blow” for Russia in the Ukraine war: warship “Moskva” sinks
The US government rated this as a “major blow” to the Navy Russias*. The missile-equipped cruiser played a “key role” in the Russian army’s efforts to establish “naval dominance in the Black Sea,” US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby told CNN.
The “Moskva” built in Soviet times, together with other ships of the Black Sea Fleet, had blocked the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol: There has been great suffering there for weeks, “hunger and need” dominate.* (tu/jfw with dpa/AFP) *fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.