Ukrainian officials say a rocket attack on a Russian warship, which Russia says has now sunk. Russian troops are regrouping for a new offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions were hit by rockets, the deputy defense minister said.
The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a guided missile cruiser that became a strong target of the Ukrainian resistance in the early days of the war, sank on Thursday after suffering heavy damage in the latest setback for the Moscow invasion.
Ukrainian officials said their forces had hit the boat with rockets, while Russia acknowledged that a fire had broken out in Moskva but no attack. US and other Western officials could not confirm what caused the blaze.
The loss of the warship named for the Russian capital would be a major military and symbolic defeat for Russia as its troops reorganize for a new offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the ship sank in a storm while being towed in port. Russia had earlier said that the flames on the ship, which usually carried 500 sailors, forced the entire crew to evacuate. He later said the fire had been contained and that the ship would be towed to port with its rocket launchers intact.
In this November 2021 archive photo, the Russian Navy’s guided missile cruiser, Moskva, sails back to a port as it watches NATO warships in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea. (Alexey Pavlishak / Reuters)
The ship was capable of carrying 16 long-range cruise missiles, and removing it from the battle would significantly reduce Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. The loss of the ship would represent a major blow to Russian prestige in a war that is already widely regarded as a historic blunder.
Now in its eighth week, Russia’s invasion has stopped due to resistance by Ukrainian militants, reinforced by weapons and other aid sent by Western nations.
In the early days of the war, the Moskva was said to have been the warship that called on Ukrainian soldiers stationed on the Black Sea island of Snake to surrender in a confrontation. In a widely circulated recording, a soldier replied: “Russian warship, go alone.”
The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify the incident, but Ukraine and its supporters see it as an iconic moment of contempt. The country recently unveiled a stamp in her honor.
CLOCKS Canadian doctor returns from treatment of injured in Ukraine:
The Montreal ER doctor describes the treatment of the wounded in Ukraine
Montreal doctor Joanne Lui describes the “human tragedy we have seen over and over again” while treating the injured in Dnipro, Ukraine. 2:53
Conflicting reports from Mariupol
News of the shipwreck also overshadowed Russian claims of progress in the southern port city of Mariupol, where it has fought Ukrainians since the first days of the invasion in some of the fiercest fighting – at a horrific cost to civilians.
The representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General. Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday that 1,026 soldiers from the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade had been handed over to a metal factory in the city. But Vadim Denishenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, denied the allegations, telling Current Time TV that “the battle for the port is still going on today.”
It was not clear when or at what time a surrender may have taken place or how many forces were still defending Mariupol.
Russian state television broadcast Wednesday footage from Mariupol showing dozens of men in camouflage walking with their hands up and carrying others on stretchers or chairs. A man was holding a white flag.
A woman cries inside a shelter in Popasna, in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, on Thursday amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / Getty Images)
Mariupol was the scene of some of the worst atrocities of the war. The number of Ukrainian defenders resisting the Russian siege, which has trapped more than 100,000 civilians in desperate need for food, water and heating, is dwindling.
The mayor said on Monday that more than 10,000 civilians had been killed in the siege and that the death toll could rise to more than 20,000. Weeks of assault and deprivation left corpses “on the streets,” he said.
The capture of Mariupol is crucial for Russia because it would bring under its control an area of territory that would allow its forces in the south, which reached through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to join troops in the eastern Donbass region, Industrial heart of Ukraine. and the purpose of the forthcoming attack.
The Russian military continues to move helicopters and other equipment together for such an effort, according to a senior U.S. defense official, and will likely add more ground combat units “in the coming days.” But it is still unclear when Russia could launch a larger attack on Donbas.
Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine in Donbas since 2014, the same year Russia invaded Crimea. Russia has recognized the independence of the Donbass rebel-held areas, although the move has been met with widespread condemnation from the West.
“Serious damage” to the ship
But the loss of Moscow could delay any new, wide-ranging attack. Maksym Marchenko, governor of the Odessa region, located along the Black Sea northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians had hit the guided missile with two Neptune missiles and caused “serious damage”. CLOCKS The battle for Mariupol “is not over yet”, says the analyst:
The battle for Mariupol “is not over yet”, says the analyst of the defense industry
Former British Army officer Nicholas Drummond says trying to take control of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol will be costly for the Russians without “any easy victory”. There are three main points of resistance in the city and up to 3,000 Ukrainian troops are still capturing a significant number of Russian troops, he says. 3:57
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, later said the ship had sunk, calling it “colossal”.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a crowd of 5,000 people. He said the “main missile weapons” were not damaged. In addition to cruise missiles, the warship also had air defense missiles and other artillery.
Neptune is an anti-ship missile recently developed by Ukraine based on an older Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks off the coast, and according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers away. That would have put Moskva in range, based on where the fire started.
In this static image taken from a video broadcast by Russian television on Wednesday, soldiers carry a wounded man on a stretcher as they display a white flag at a location referred to as Mariupol, Ukraine. The post said the video showed Ukrainian Marines being handed over to Mariupol. Reuters could not independently confirm the tradition and authenticity of the Russian television video. (RURTR / Bulletin / Reuters TV) A Ukrainian soldier watches as workers exhume bodies from a mass grave in Bukha, northwest of Kiev, on Thursday. (Sergei Supinsky / AFP / Getty Images)
The United States has not been able to confirm Ukraine’s claims of a warship strike, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday. However, he described it as “a major blow to Russia”.
“They had to choose between two stories: One was that they were just incompetent and the other was that they were attacked, and neither is [particularly] “Good result for them,” Sullivan told the Economic Club of Washington.
The war enters the 8th week
Russia invaded on February 24 with the aim of quickly occupying Kyiv, overthrowing the government and establishing a Moscow-friendly replacement, according to Western officials. The conflict has killed countless Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee. CLOCKS Ukraine calls for more weapons:
Ukraine calls for military equipment in anticipation of imminent Russian attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for military equipment – such as weapons, armored vehicles and fighter jets – as the country’s armed forces prepare to take a more agile approach to heavy Russian attacks in the Donbas region. 2:01
Also Thursday, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of sending two low-flying military helicopters across the border and firing on residential buildings in the village of Klimovo in Russia’s Bryansk region, about 11 kilometers from the border. Russia’s Investigative Committee says seven people, including a small child, were injured.
Russia’s state security service had earlier reported that Ukrainian forces fired mortars at a border crossing in Bryansk as they were crossing the border, forcing them to flee.
The reports could not be independently verified. Earlier this month, Ukrainian security officials denied that Kyiv was behind an airstrike on an oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, about 55 kilometers from the border.
CLOCKS Exhibition on the bombing of the Mariupol theater opens at the Ukrainian Art Center:
New exhibition opens at the Ukrainian Art Center during the war
The director of the Lviv Municipal Art Center in Ukraine explained why it is important to create and support art during the war. A new photo exhibition for the bombed theater in the port city of Mariupol opened on Thursday. 1:36
