“Ukraine Downs Russian Cruiser ‘Moscow’ in Black Sea Showdown”

Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down the cruiser “Moscow” , which was in the Black Sea, April 13, 2022. The Odessa regional military administration reported that the ship was hit with Neptune missiles.

Russia later confirmed that the Moskva was badly damaged, but claimed that it had “detonated ammunition due to a fire”. The Yug operational command informed that other ships of the Russian fleet tried to save the damaged cruiser, but a storm and an explosion of ammunition capsized the ship, it began to sink. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation at first stated that the ship remained afloat, but on the evening of April 14, it admitted that the cruiser Moskva sank “in a storm.” The Russian Federation did not admit that Ukraine launched a missile attack on the cruiser.

It is not known exactly how many people were on board the cruiser. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, it could accommodate up to 680 crew members. Ukrainian authorities and media reported that there were more than 500 people on board. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that 58 out of 510 people who were there were rescued from the Moskva cruiser.

At first, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation did not recognize the losses and stated that all crew members were evacuated. Journalists have published a number of materials that indicate that this is not so. The media managed to find out the names of at least two dead crew members and at least seven missing. After that, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced one dead and 27 missing on the cruiser.