Warship "Moskva": Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to retaliate

Created: 04/18/2022, 04:49 am

By: Tobias Utz, Tanja Banner, Jan-Frederik Wendt, Alina Schröder

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released images purporting to show sailors on the Moskva warship.

Ukraine speaks of an attempt at retaliation.

• The Russian warship “Moskva” sinks in the Ukraine War*.

• According to Ukrainian and US information, Ukrainian "Neptune" rockets have sunk the ship, Russia * insists on an accident.

• You can read all current developments relating to the warship "Mowska" here.

+++ 19.40:

According to the Ukrainian government, the Russian attack on a military factory near Kiev was a retaliatory attack for the destruction of the Russian warship "Moskva".

This was reported by the AFP news agency on Easter Sunday (04/17/2022).

At the end of March, Moscow actually announced that it wanted to focus its offensive on eastern Ukraine.

On Friday, however, the Kremlin threatened renewed attacks on the Ukrainian capital.

The attack on the munitions factory near the settlement of Brovaryj in the Kyiv region was confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday via the Telegram news service.

The military complex was therefore destroyed with "high-precision air-launched missiles".

The Russian flagship "Moskva" is said to have been destroyed by Ukrainian shelling.

Ukraine is now accusing Russia of trying to retaliate.

(Archive photo) © AFP

Update from Sunday, April 17th, 2022, 10:50 a.m.:

What happened to the 500-man crew of the "Moskva"?

This question still cannot be answered.

Ukraine suspects there have been fatalities, while Russia claims the crew has been evacuated.

Yesterday the Defense Ministry in Moscow released a video purporting to show members of the crew.

There is still disagreement as to whether the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was hit by Ukrainian rockets of the Neptune type or - as the Russian side claims - damaged by the detonation of ammunition. 

A Russian sailor salutes at the bow of the Moskva.

The Russian guided missile cruiser has since sunk.

(Archive image) © Pavel Golovkin/AP/dpa

Warship "Moskva" sunk: Video from Russia is said to show rescued crew

+++ 8.15 p.m .:

After the sinking of the Russian warship “Moskva”, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a video intended 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” – around 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 stamp with the motif of a Ukrainian soldier giving a Russian warship the finger 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 Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been 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 sinking 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

+++ 5:00 p.m .:

The background to the sinking of the “Moskva” has not yet been clarified.

Ukraine also claims to have sunk the warship with a missile attack.

The Turkish Bayraktar-TB2 drones could also have been used, for example to distract the air defenses.

+++ 2:00 p.m .:

According to the United States, the sinking of the “Moskva” has consequences for the Russian Navy’s operational capability 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"

+++ 1:00 p.m .:

The British secret service has published a situation 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.

+++ 7.45 a.m .:

According to the US Department of Defense, it is “probable” that the Russian warship “Moskva” was killed and injured.

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 15th, 2022, 7:00 a.m.:

Kiev/Odessa – On Thursday (April 14th, 2022), the Russian army lost its probably most important warship in the Ukraine war*.

This is the missile cruiser Moskva, part of the Black Sea Fleet.

The Ministry of Defense in Moscow * spoke of the fact that the military ship had lost its "balance" and had gone under 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 it is unclear who or what is actually responsible for the sinking of the warship.

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 speech and praised all 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 of Russia*.

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 for weeks, "hunger and need" dominate. * (tu / jfw with dpa / AFP)