Ukrainian officials said no one had been rescued and that the captain of the ship, Black Sea Fleet commander Anton Kuprin, was among the dead. “We saw that other ships tried to help, but even the forces of nature were on the side of Ukraine, because the storm made it impossible for both the rescue operation and the evacuation of the crew,” said Natalia Gumenyuk, a spokeswoman for the southern military. of Ukraine during briefing on Friday. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Kiev Interior Ministry, said on Friday that “the explosion was so powerful that the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet sank within minutes.” “The leadership of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation deliberately concealed the truth from relatives and friends of the crew members,” he said. “The entire crew of the Moskva cruiser has died.” Mr Gerashchenko is a well-connected Ukrainian politician, but some of his allegations have been unfounded in the past. The Kremlin has not commented on any casualties. Neither the Black Sea Fleet nor local officials in Sevastopol reported casualties.