A spokesman for the ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said on Friday that Russia would intensify its attacks on targets in Kyiv in response to any further attempts by Ukrainian forces to “sabotage” Russian territory. The threat came a day after Russia admitted losing the Moskva missile cruiser – arguably the biggest obstacle to the 50-day campaign – as it prepares for a new offensive in southeastern Ukraine. A senior US official said on Friday that the United States believed the ship had been hit by two Ukrainian missiles. Diplomatic tensions erupted between the Kremlin and the EU as Russia announced it was deporting 18 diplomats from the Brussels delegation to Moscow. Russia has said the deportations were a response to “unfriendly” actions by the EU. The EU regretted the move, a response to its face in Brussels that deported a similar number of Russian diplomats earlier this month. During the night, air alarms sounded in cities around Ukraine and loud explosions echoed in Kyiv. Russia said Thursday that Moskva sank during a storm following a fire on a ship that set off its ammunition depots. Ukraine said it caused the ship to sink after hitting Moskva with a cruise missile. The United States has now assessed that two Ukrainian Neptune missiles hit Moscow, the US official said, adding that the United States believed there was an unknown number of casualties. Anton Gerastshenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, told the Telegram that Moscow Commander Anton Kuprin had been killed in an explosion and fire on the ship. The information could not be verified. The sinking of Moskva was welcomed with joy in Ukraine. The resistance on the ship became an early symbol of the struggle against Russia when the Ukrainian troops, ordered by Moscow to surrender, responded by saying: “Russian military ship, go fuck yourself.” Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov posted a photo of himself diving on Twitter, saying: “A ‘flagship’ Russian warship is a remarkable diving site. We have another diving spot in the Black Sea now. “We will definitely visit the wreck after our victory in the war.” Russia has not admitted that Ukraine hit the ship. Instead, it framed its strikes in response to what it claims are a series of increasingly daring Ukrainian raids behind Russian lines, including an apparent attack on a railway bridge on a critical supply route near Belgorod. On Friday, Russia said it had shot down one of several helicopters it said had attacked a village in Bryansk, another border area, where investigators claimed two residential buildings had been destroyed and eight people injured. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, which some analysts say could be used by President Vladimir Putin as a pretext to expand the invasion. Ukraine’s military says Russia is mobilizing forces for an offensive in the east of the country. “The enemy continues to focus its efforts on preparations for an offensive operation in eastern Ukraine and the occupation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the creation of a so-called overland corridor with. . . “Crimea,” said Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, at a news conference on Friday. He added that the Russian military continued to use rockets to hit Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and that two strategic bombers from the airspace over Krasnodar in southern Russia fired cruise missiles into Ukrainian territory on Thursday. Motuzyanyk also said that for the first time since the beginning of the war, Russia used Tupolev 2 and Tupolev long-range bombers in the besieged city of Mariupol. The Kremlin’s excuses and goals for the war are changing as Russia regroups in an effort to seize the eastern border region of Donbass. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peshkov told reporters on Friday that “the most important thing is to release him. [Ukraine] from these nationalist battalions “- marginal far-right groups that Russia falsely claims to have seized control of the Ukrainian government. “The operation continues and the tasks are known. They must and will be completed. “There should be no doubt,” Peshkov was quoted as saying by Interfax. Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army in the south of the country, said on Friday that Mykolaiv, a strategic southern city under Ukrainian control, had been bombed in retaliation for the sinking of Moskva. “The situation in southern Ukraine is really tense,” Khomeini told a news conference. “Stable but tense.” “When the Moscow cruiser was hit, it affected not only the ships, it affected Russia’s imperial ambitions, and of course we understand that they will not forget, they will not forgive,” Humenyuk said. Additional references by Henry Foy in Brussels and Felicia Schwartz in Washington
