The ministry denied reports that the warship had sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea. He said the Moskva “kept buoyancy”, with the fires extinguished and the crew transferred to another boat. Dmitry Peshkov, Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman, could not be reached for comment. “I can not tell you anything. “This is an issue for the Ministry of Defense.” Ukraine’s southern military said on Thursday it had hit Moscow with a Neptune rocket and that the ship had begun to sink. The fire broke out after the rocket exploded, he said on Facebook. He added that four Russian ships that went to the rescue of Moskva were prevented by the storm and the explosion of ammunition on the ship. Unconfirmed reports say the missile cruiser had capsized and started to sink. Map The apparent attack – 50 days after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine – represents a symbolic blow to the Kremlin. The Moskva was the pride of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the most famous ship that took part in the war in Ukraine. Rumors circulating in Moscow suggested that Putin had avoided landing on the beach and attacking the Ukrainian port of Odessa because he wanted to protect Moscow from danger. Happy Ukrainians celebrated the apparent end of the ship on social media. A satellite image shows a view of Moscow northwest of Sevastopol, Crimea, on April 10. Photo: Maxar Technologies / Reuters Moskva gained notoriety early in the war when the crew demanded the surrender of Ukrainian forces to Snake Island, prompting a response from the island’s border guards: “Fuck you, Russian warship.” I’m not sure if you know – this iconic “Russian warship, go fuck yourself” was originally aimed at the cruiser Moskva pic.twitter.com/vCk75OwV7a – Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) April 14, 2022 The phrase immediately became a symbol of national contempt and is now a global meme. Appeared on a new national stamp as well as at checkpoints, shop windows, Ukrainian military vehicles and private cars. Moskva, with a crew of 510 people, was evacuated after an ammunition fire, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. He declined to say what caused the fire. Graphic The ship was launched in 1983 and was armed with 16 Vulkan cruise missiles with a range of at least 440 miles (700 km). It also reportedly carried S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, which are critical to Russia’s air superiority over Crimea and the Ukrainian province of Kherson, now occupied by Russian troops. Russian state media reported that the entire crew was safe. Citing the Ministry of Defense, he said that arrangements are being made for the towing of the cruiser in the port. So far no photos have been released from the damage. “The source of the fire in the cruiser Moskva has been identified. There is no open fire. “Ammunition explosions have stopped,” the state-run Tass news agency quoted the defense ministry as saying. Maksym Marchenko, the Ukrainian governor of the Odessa region, said Moskva had been hit by two Ukrainian-made anti-ship cruise missiles. “The Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage,” he said. “It has been confirmed that the Moskva missile cruiser today went exactly where it was sent by our border guards to Snake Island.” Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said: “It’s burning hard, right now. And with this stormy sea, it is unknown whether they will be able to get help. “ In a tweet, Arestovic joked that the warship had made a “negative ascent” not far from Snake Island. He was quoted as saying in an interview with Putin in 2000, when Russia’s new president was asked what had happened to the Kursk submarine. Putin replied: “It sank.” A satellite image shows the Moskva missile cruiser in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on April 7. Photo: AP The reported boat attack came hours after Ukraine’s allies sought to rally new support for the war-torn country. “The struggle for the future of Europe is happening here,” said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, during a visit by leaders from three other countries on the threshold of Russia who feared they might be targeted later in Moscow. The Russian navy has launched cruise missiles into Ukraine and its activities in the Black Sea are vital to supporting ground operations in the southern part of the country, where it is fighting to take full control of the port of Mariupol. Russian forces withdrew from parts of northern Ukraine after suffering heavy casualties and failing to occupy the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine and its Western allies say Moscow is redeploying for a new offensive in the east. Moskva led a significant Russian naval presence in the Black Sea, threatening the southern coast of Ukraine and its main ports. This has been one of the main focus of the Kremlin’s military efforts, aimed at cutting off Ukraine’s access to the sea and building a land bridge from the Crimean peninsula to the Russian border. The news of the flagship damage overshadowed Russian claims of progress in Mariupol, where it had been fighting the Ukrainian army since the early days of the invasion in some of the fiercest battles of the war – at horrific cost to civilians. Igor Konashenkov, the chief spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, said on Wednesday that 1,026 soldiers from the 36th Ukrainian Marine Brigade had been handed over to a metal factory in the city. But Vadim Denishenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, denied the allegations, telling Current Time TV: “The battle for the port is still going on today.”
