RIGA, Latvia – The sinking of the Russian warship Moskva is causing tension in the homeland, where some families report sailors dead or missing despite the claim of the Ministry of Defense that the entire crew had been evacuated. The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet sank last week after being hit by two Ukrainian missiles, causing a major blow to Russia’s naval capability, US and Ukrainian officials said. Russia has confirmed that the ship sank, but said only that it had been damaged by “heavy storms” and a fire that caused ammunition to explode on board. On April 14, the Russian Defense Ministry said all crew members had been evacuated. Authorities have not confirmed any deaths or injuries. However, many families now refute this claim in the Russian media and on social media. Social media groups uniting the mothers of Russian soldiers currently in Ukraine are filled with photos and calls from parents searching for their missing sons. On Monday, at least four families shared photos of the sailors who families say served on the sunken ship and have not been notified of the incident. “Please join us in our search for Moscow sailors!” reads a message in a Vkontakte message board. “Family members, talk to your sons, maybe someone saw it [rest of the] children at the time of the evacuation or were you near the cruiser itself or are you with them at the moment in hospital? “ The mother of a sailor said her son, who survived, told her that about 40 people had died and many had been injured and were unaware of the sinking. The Novaya Gazeta Europe newspaper published the statements of the anonymous woman on Sunday, saying that it had examined documents proving that the son was serving in the Navy, although no concrete proof that he was on board in Moskva when he sank. “There are dead, there are injured, there are missing. My son called me when they were given phones. They left their documents and [their personal] phones at [ship]. He calls me and cries at what he saw. It was scary. “It is clear that not everyone survived,” said the mother, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for her safety. The Russian news agency Agentstvo said it had spoken to a family member who confirmed Vitaly Begersky’s death in Moscow. The Ministry of Defense announced the news to the family, the sailor’s cousin, Anastasia Begerskaya, told the media. Begersky was enlisted in a small town near the Pacific coast of Russia, Agentstvo reported. The Department of Defense released a video at the weekend that said it showed crew members from the ship. About 100 or more sailors are visible. It was not immediately clear how many were on board at the time of the incident, but the size of the crew ranged between 500 and 600 over the years, according to Russian state news agencies and Defense Ministry announcements. On Sunday, a user of the social media platform VKontakte said that the ship’s captains told him that Yegor’s son, a conscript, was among those missing in the tragedy. Russia had earlier said that the entire crew had been evacuated. It is a lie! A blatant and cynical lie! ” Written by Dmitry Skrebets. “After my efforts to clarify the details of the incident, the cruiser commander and his deputy stopped contacting me,” Skrebets wrote. “I ask all those who are not afraid and do not care, spread this call of mine where you have the opportunity” so that the tragedy is not silenced. In a later post, Shkrebets said that three families from different parts of Russia contacted him to say that their children were also missing from the sunken ship. Anna Syromyasova, the stepmother of another sailor, said 20-year-old Nikita had been missing for several days. Syromyasov said they also tried to obtain any information about their son’s whereabouts from the army. “Syromyasov Nikita Alexeevich was on board the Moskva ship on the night of April 13-14,” Syromyasova wrote on her social media page on Monday morning. “She is now missing [ones]they do not say anything to the parents, they block our contacts. [We have] no information! “ Nikita’s father told the Washington Post that his son is also a soldier and the family has not yet heard of his fate: “Silence; they say nothing.” In all, at least seven sailors have been identified and listed as missing, according to The Post, based on local media reports and family members’ accounts. At least three others have been reported dead. Among those allegedly killed was 19-year-old Andrei Tsivov, whose mother told the BBC’s Russian service that he was also a conscript. “[The military commissariat] said it could not be that the conscripts were on this ship: “They have probably just been deployed somewhere, do not worry, it is somewhere here, local, can not sail there [toward Ukraine]”, Said Julia Tsivova. She later told the Guardian she had received a call from a military official informing her that Andrey was dead. Russia is recruiting eligible men aged 18 to 27 for one year of military service. President Vladimir Putin and the country’s Defense Ministry have vowed that the conscripts will not be involved in Ukraine’s hostilities. But in early March, after videos emerged showing conscripts captured by Ukrainian forces, Russian military officials admitted that some conscripts had been “mistakenly” sent to Ukraine. The loss by Russia of Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, caused a rare note of dissatisfaction with the authorities on state-controlled television, with a widely watched presenter saying he was “furious” about the sinking. “Just explain to me how you managed to lose it! “Explain to me why the hell you happen to be in this very part of the Black Sea right now,” Vladimir Solovyov asked during his prime-time show at the weekend. “Why did your fire brigade not work and the ship almost burned from the inside out?”
