Citing the many ways in which Ukraine has defended itself against the invasion, he noted “those who have shown that Russian warships can move away, even if they are at the bottom” of the sea. It was his only reference to the missile cruiser. 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. Moskva had the capability to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. It is also a blow to Moscow’s prestige in a war that is already widely regarded as a historic blunder. Now in its eighth week, the invasion has stopped amid resistance from Ukrainian-backed militants and other aid sent by Western nations. In the early days of the war, Moskva was said to have been the ship that called on Ukrainian soldiers on the Black Sea island of Snake to surrender in a confrontation. In a widely circulated recording, a soldier replied: “Russian warship, go (insultingly) yourself.” 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. The news of the flagship overshadowed Russian claims of progress in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Moscow forces have been fighting Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the fiercest battles of the war – at horrific cost to civilians. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday that 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers had been handed over to a metal factory in the city. However, 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 how many forces were still defending Mariupol. Russian state television broadcast footage saying he was from Mariupol and showed dozens of men in camouflage walking with their hands up and carrying others on stretchers. A man was holding a white flag. Mariupol was the scene of the worst of the war. The small number of Ukrainian defenders is enduring a siege that has trapped more than 100,000 people in desperate need for food, water and heating. David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Program, told the AP in an interview on Thursday that people were “starving to death” in the besieged city. The mayor of Mariupol said this week that more than 10,000 civilians had lost their lives and that the death toll could rise to more than 20,000, after weeks of attacks and deprivation that left the bodies “on the streets”. The capture of Mariupol is crucial for Russia because it will allow its forces in the south, which came through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to fully connect with troops in the Donbas region, the eastern industrial heart of Ukraine and the target 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 rebel areas in Donbas. The loss of Moskva could delay any new, wide-ranging attack. Maksym Marchenko, governor of the Odessa region across the Black Sea, northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians hit the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused “serious damage”. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the ammunition on board was fired as a result of the fire, without specifying what caused the fire. 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 near the coast and, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away. This would have put Moskva within range, based on where it was when the fire started. Launched as Slava in 1979, the cruiser saw service in the Cold War and during the conflicts in Georgia and Syria and assisted in conducting scientific research in peacetime with the United States. During the Cold War, it carried nuclear weapons. In 1989, Slava was supposed to host a meeting off Malta between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George W. Bush, but strong winds carried the talks to the anchored cruiser Maxim Gorky. On Thursday, other Russian ships also in the northern Black Sea moved south after the fire in Moskva, a senior US defense official said on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military considerations. Before the sinking of Moskva, Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, told the AP that his removal would mean “we can only have one sigh of relief.” While the United States has not been able to confirm Ukraine’s claims that the warship was hit, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called it 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 a particularly good outcome for them,” Sullivan told the Washington Economic Club. . Russia invaded on February 24 and may have lost thousands of fighters. The conflict has killed countless Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee. It has also pushed up prices in grocery stores and petrol pumps, while dragging the global economy. The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that the war had helped the agency downgrade economic forecasts for 143 countries. Also Thursday, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of sending two low-flying military helicopters about 11 kilometers (7 miles) across the border and firing on residential buildings in the village of Klimovo in Russia’s Bryansk region. 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 (35 miles) from the border.
Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.
