{"id":252265,"date":"2022-04-15T06:34:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T06:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=252265"},"modified":"2022-04-16T06:54:01","modified_gmt":"2022-04-16T06:54:01","slug":"russia-says-moskva-cruiser-has-sunk-after-reported-ukrainian-missile-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=252265","title":{"rendered":"Russia says Moskva cruiser has sunk after reported Ukrainian missile strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pjotr Sauer, Julien Borger and Jessica Eliot \u2013 The Guardian April 14, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Russia\u2019s flagship missile cruiser Moskva has sunk in \u201cstormy seas\u201d while being towed to a port in the Black Sea following an explosion, the Russian defence ministry has announced.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian southern military command claimed late on Wednesday to have struck the Moskva with Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles, while distracting its crew with an aerial drone, causing it to start sinking and forcing the crew to abandon ship.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s defence ministry initially denied reports that it had sunk and claimed the fires had been extinguished.<\/a> Four Russian ships that had gone to the Moskva\u2019s rescue were being hampered by stormy weather and by ammunition blowing up onboard, it said.<\/p>\n

But late on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement: \u201cThe cruiser ship Moskva lost its stability when it was towed to the port because of the damage to the ship\u2019s hull that it received during the fire from the detonation of ammunition. In stormy sea conditions, the ship sank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia had said earlier that the crew of more than 500 crew were evacuated from the Soviet-era missile cruiser to other ships.<\/p>\n

The apparent attack and sinking of the Black Sea fleet\u2019s flagship \u2013 50 days after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine<\/a> \u2013 represents a symbolic blow to the Kremlin. The Moskva was the pride of Russia\u2019s Black Sea naval fleet and the most prestigious vessel involved in the war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, is not just a significant loss, it is emblematic of the shambolic Russian military campaign,\u201d said Michael Kofman, research programme director and Russia expert at the Center for Naval Analyses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Russian missile cruiser Moskva. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Commissioned in 1983, the ship was armed with 16 anti-ship Vulkan cruise missiles with a range of at least 440 miles (700km). According to reports, it was also carrying S-300 anti-air missiles, which are crucial to Russia\u2019s air superiority over Crimea and Ukraine\u2019s Kherson province, now occupied by Russian troops.<\/p>\n

It is the most significant naval vessel to be sunk since the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed by a British submarine, HMS Conqueror in 1982<\/a>. It is the first time Moscow has lost a cruiser since German planes sunk the Chervona Ukraina (Red Ukraine) in 1941 at Sevastopol \u2013 the same Crimean naval base where the Moskva was being to towed towards when it sank.<\/p>\n

Maksym Marchenko, the Ukrainian governor of the region around Odesa, said the Moskva had been hit by two cruise missiles. \u201cNeptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia\u2019s flagship missile cruiser Moskva has sunk in \u201cstormy seas\u201d while being towed to port after being extensively damaged from a Ukrainian missile strike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252269,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252265\/revisions\/252269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}