Ukrainian forces announced that they had hit and severely damaged the main ship of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, while Russia said that its crew was forced to evacuate the ship as a result of a fire without acknowledging the occurrence of an attack.
Odessa region governor Maxim Marchenko said Ukraine had hit the guided-missile cruiser “Moskva” with two missiles that caused “serious damage”.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the ship was damaged, with no reference to a Ukrainian attack.
She said that the ammunition that was on board exploded as a result of a fire whose causes are not yet known, and added that the entire crew had been evacuated.
And if it is confirmed that the cruiser has sunk, it will be a major blow to Russia, after the tank carrier Orsk was damaged and caught fire in an attack in Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov at the end of last month.
Incident video
Pro-Ukrainian pages on Twitter and YouTube circulated a video clip of the bombing of the cruiser “Moskova”, while the source of the video was not immediately confirmed by an independent source.
The video, which was filmed with a night vision feature, showed the emergence of high smoke from the cruiser, in the middle of the sea.
The Moskova is considered “the most dangerous ship in the Black Sea,” according to a retired Russian admiral in April 2021.
Kyiv says Moskva was involved in one of the early clashes of the war, when Ukrainian border guards on the small Black Sea island of Snyk refused an order from the ship to surrender.
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