Loss of Russian Cruiser Moskva: What we know so far
Ukrainian forces reportedly attacked the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the Slava-class cruiser Moskva, causing significant damage aboard the vessel. Russian news agencies confirmed the damage. Below is what we know so far about the Moskva incident.
Tayfun Ozberk 14 Apr 2022
This story was updated twice to include a reports from US intelligence and Russian state media
On the evening of April 13, rumors surfaced on social media that Ukrainian forces had attacked the Russian cruiser Moskva and caused severe damage on board the ship. In the beginning, people were skeptical of this assertion because of similar (but unverified) previous claims about Russian Navy ships hit by Ukrainian fires. Patrol cruiser Vasily Bykov and Frigate Admiral Essen were rumored to be damaged but such rumors turned out to be not true.
At midnight, several Russian media outlets, including state-owned RIA Novosti and the TASS agency, confirmed an explosion aboard the Moskva cruiser. While the Russian Ministry of Defence didn’t release a statement on this incident, the source of the Russian media was the Defence Ministry.
According to RIA Novosti, Moskva suffered a detonation from its own ammunition, and the crew was completely evacuated. TASS Agency shared similar statements to define the reason as “a blast of ammunition”.
“A fire and subsequent munitions blast have caused serious damage to the Moskva missile cruiser of the Russian Black Sea fleet, the crew was evacuated, the Russian defense ministry said on Thursday.”
TASS News Agency
Given Ukraine’s claims and the Russian media statements, it is assumed that the cruiser Moskva was hit by a long-range missile. An official statement about what weapon was used to fire the missile is not yet available, but according to a statement by the governor of Odesa circulating on social media Telegram, Ukraine hit the ship with its locally designed and manufactured Neptune anti-ship missile.
The Neptune missiles were to be delivered to the Ukrainian Armed Forces in April 2022. Ukraine’s need for coastal missiles has always been an issue since the beginning of the war, but Ukraine hasn’t deployed these missiles even though Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has operated near its territorial waters and fired land-based missiles. According to many experts and analysts, the delivery schedule was interrupted due to the war, and Ukraine doesn’t have an anti-ship missile capability in its arsenal. At a time when Ukraine and the United Kingdom have been holding talks on the delivery of anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, the attack on the Moskva turns out to be a surprising incident.
Another claim made by the Ukrainian media was that TB2 Bayraktar drones were used to distract the Russian cruiser and launch the anti-ship missiles at Moskva when it was busy pursuing the Turkish-made UAV. This claim seems unrealistic, as the Moskva had the capabilities to deal with multiple threats.
Author’s comment:
Update 1:
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on CNN that the warship Moskva is still afloat but clearly damaged. He said it remains unclear whether the damage was caused by Ukraine missile attack
Update 2:
According to Russian state media Ria Novosti, quoting the Russian Ministry of Defense:
“During the towing of the Moskva cruiser to the port of destination, due to damage to the hull received during the fire from the detonation of ammunition, the ship lost stability. In the conditions of stormy seas, the ship sank,”
The report appears dubious because the conditions in the Black Sea today at 17:00 local time were nowhere near “stormy” with wind speed of 14 knots and wave height of around 1 meter:
More:
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/04/loss-of-russian-cruiser-moskva-what-we-know-so-far/
>>16078983 (me)
Russian warship sinks in the Black Sea after Ukraine claims it was hit by a missile
By Brad Lendon, CNN Updated 6:43 PM EDT, Thu April 14, 2022
One of the Russian Navy’s most important warships has sunk in the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his neighbor.
Russian state news agency TASS reported Thursday evening that the guided-missile cruiser Moskva had sunk, citing a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“During the towing of the cruiser Moskva to the port of destination, the ship lost its stability due to hull damage received during a fire from the detonation of ammunition. In the conditions of stormy seas, the ship sank,” the statement said, according to TASS.
Conflicting accounts have emerged about the incident.
Ukraine’s Operational Command South claimed earlier on Thursday that the Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles.
“In the Black Sea operational zone, Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet – it received significant damage,” the statement said. “A fire broke out. Other units of the ship’s group tried to help, but a storm and a powerful explosion of ammunition overturned the cruiser and it began to sink.”
Russia said a fire broke out on the guided-missile cruiser, causing munitions aboard to explode, inflicting serious damage to the vessel, and forcing the crew of the warship to be evacuated.
CNN has not been able to independently verify what caused the damage to the ship.
Earlier in the day Russia’s defense ministry had said that the Moskva “remains afloat” and that measures were being taken to tow it to port. The ministry said the crew had been evacuated to other Black Sea Fleet ships in the area.
Two sources familiar with US and Western intelligence told CNN on Thursday that Ukraine’s claim is believed to be credible, although US officials do not yet have definitive proof.
One source familiar with the latest intelligence said that the US believes with “medium confidence” that Ukraine’s version of events is accurate.
Both sources cautioned that the US has not yet made an independent attribution.
The 611-foot-long (186 meters) Moskva, with a crew of almost 500, is the pride of the Russian naval fleet in the Black Sea. Originally commissioned into the Soviet navy as the Slava in the 1980s, it was renamed Moskva in 1995 and after a refit reentered service in 1998, according to military site Naval-Technology.com.
The Moskva is armed with a range of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles as well as torpedoes and naval guns and close-in missile defense systems.
All those represent massive amounts of explosive ordnance in its ammunition magazines. Any fire nearing them would have given the crew limited options to deal with the threat, Schuster said.
“When a fire reaches your ammunition magazine(s), you have two choices; 1) flood them or 2) abandon ship,” Schuster said. “Otherwise your crew is onboard to be wiped out by the catastrophic explosion that follows a fire reaching several hundred tons of ordnance.”
Odesa state regional administrator Maxim Marchenko claimed in a post on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had used Neptune cruises missiles to attack the Moskva. If that’s true, the Moskva would potentially be the largest warship ever taken out of action by a missile, Schuster said.
More:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/europe/russia-navy-cruiser-moskva-fire-abandoned-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
Did you not see the previous >>16078983 ??? We know CNN spins everything
Like I reported last night, MOSKA did have an explosion and fire aboard, Russian MOD admitted it, but only Ukraine claims a missile hit.
If I would notable the stuff, would look like this:
>>16078983, >>16079016, >>16079042 Russian cruiser MOSKVA reported sunk, old footage from Norway used for Ukrainian claim
Good thing for both of us bread is still ghosted hunh?