Russia’s Black Sea missile cruiser “Moscow” has sunk in the Black Sea after a fire and an explosion of ammunition, Russia’s defense ministry said on Thursday.
“When the Moscow cruiser was towed to the port of destination, the ship lost its stability due to damage to the hull caused by munitions detonation during the fire. The ship sank in the waves of the storm,” the ministry said in a statement.
The cruiser crew had already been evacuated.
John Curby, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense, said a few hours earlier that the cruiser “Moscow” was floating after the explosion and was moving across the Black Sea in the direction of Sevastopol.
The press service of the Ukrainian Army Operational Command “South” previously reported that “Moscow” overturned and began to sink after the Ukrainian anti-ship missiles “Neptun” hit. Two rockets hit a cruiser in the Black Sea near Odessa, and a fire broke out on board.
The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that a fire and ammunition had broken out on the cruiser, but claimed that the fire had been localized, the ship was still floating and would be towed to port.
Experts believe there may have been rocket warheads on board.
The cruiser “Moskva” with 510 crew members was part of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s 30th Surface Vessel Division.
The cruiser “Moscow” became infamous in February when it invited Ukrainian border guards to surrender on Snake Island, but they refused to do so and rudely ordered the ship.
The border guards, who were initially thought to have been killed in the incident, were in fact captured. At the end of March, they were released in an exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia.
The U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday called the sinking of the cruiser “Moscow” a “major blow” to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“It is a major blow to the Black Sea Fleet, which is (..) an important part [Krievijas] efforts to exercise a kind of fleet dominance in the Black Sea. It will affect him [kaujas] Pentagon spokesman John Curby told CNN.
The Pentagon acknowledged that the cause of the ship’s sinking could not be confirmed, but did not deny Ukraine’s statements about the ship’s shooting.
The cruiser “Moskva” was built at the Mykolaiv shipyard from 1976 to 1979 and put into operation in 1982 under the original name “Slava”. After the scrapping of the anti-submarine cruiser “Moskva” in 1996, “Slava” was renamed “Moskva” and became the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, having participated in the Russian military conflicts in Georgia in 2008, Syria in 2015 and Ukraine this year.
During Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the cruiser “Moskva” took part in the capture of Snake Island and the blockade of the cities of Odessa, Mykolaiv and Ochakov.
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