War in Ukraine, day 50 | Moskva cruiser sinks, accusations of strikes in Russia

(Odessa) The cruiser MoskvaRussian flagship in the Black Sea, sank on Thursday after being hit by a Ukrainian missile according to Kyiv, following an accidental fire according to Moscow, raising fears of an escalation of the conflict as Russia accuses Ukrainian forces of bombing villages in its territory.

“When towing the cruiser Moskva towards the port of destination, the ship lost its stability due to hull damage sustained in the fire following the detonation of ammunition. In rough sea conditions, the ship sank,” the Russian Defense Ministry was quoted as saying by Russian agencies.

He had indicated earlier in the day that the fire on board was “contained”, and that the cruiser “kept its buoyancy”, while claiming to investigate the causes of the disaster. No statement of possible losses was provided.

Whatever the circumstances of the sinking, it is one of Russia’s biggest setbacks and a major humiliation.

“Seriously Damaged”

During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense had admitted that this 186-meter-long missile ship had been “severely damaged” by a fire which caused the explosion of ammunition and that its crew of more of 500 men had to be evacuated.

The Ukrainian governor of the Odessa region, Maxime Marchenko, affirmed for his part that the Ukrainian armed forces had struck the Moskva with Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles, inflicting “significant damage”.

The decommissioning of this iconic building comes after the destruction at the end of March of a warship in the port of Berdiansk, on the Sea of ​​Azov, and that of a fuel depot in Belgorod, Russia, which the Russians attributed to a Ukrainian helicopter attack carried out 40 km into enemy territory.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych quipped that the Moskva was the famous “Russian military ship” which, summoning a handful of Ukrainian soldiers stationed on a small island in the Black Sea to surrender at the start of the war, was answered by radio: “Russian military ship, go fuck you! “.

The recording of this exchange had gone around the world and served as a leitmotiv for the Ukrainian resistance, even appearing on placards during demonstrations of support abroad and now on a Ukrainian postage stamp.

Translating into words the level of extreme hostility reached in this conflict, as much as the gravity of the atrocities attributed to Russian forces, the Ukrainian Parliament voted on Thursday a resolution qualifying the Russian offensive as “genocide”.

“Russia’s actions aim to systematically and coherently destroy the Ukrainian people, to deprive them of the right to self-determination and independent development”, explains the text voted by the absolute majority.

In return, Russia accused Ukraine of bombing Russian border villages. The Russian Investigative Committee stated in particular that two Ukrainian helicopters “equipped with heavy weapons” entered Russia and carried out “at least six strikes on apartment buildings in the village of Klimovo”, in the region of Bryansk.

Seven people, including a baby, were injured “to varying degrees”, according to these Russian accusations, the validity of which is impossible to verify independently.

Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council rejected the claims, instead accusing Russian intelligence of carrying out “terrorist attacks” in the border region to fuel “anti-Ukrainian hysteria”.

American heavy weapons

Even before the announcement of the fire on the cruiser, Russia, whose announced massive offensive in the Donbass has still not begun and which is struggling to take full control of Mariupol, a strategic port in the Azov, threatened to hit “decision-making centers” in Kyiv.

“We are seeing sabotage attempts and strikes by Ukrainian forces on targets on the territory of the Russian Federation,” said Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.

“If such events continue, strikes will be carried out by the Russian army on decision-making centers, including in Kyiv, which the Russian army has refrained from doing so far”, a- he warned.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has remained since the beginning of the war entrenched with his administration in the center of the capital, from where he has continued to demand from the West deliveries of heavy armaments which are lacking to resist the power fire from the Russians.

“Russia has brought thousands of tanks, artillery pieces and all sorts of heavy weapons to the region, simply hoping to crush our army”, hammered its Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba on Thursday in an interview with the German television channel ARD.

US President Joe Biden, who has refused to do so until now, acceded to the Ukrainian request on Wednesday, promising massive new military aid of $800 million, including armor and long-range guns.

His French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, publicly challenged by Volodymyr Zelensky on his refusal to endorse the word “genocide” used by Joe Biden to justify his military aid, underlines for his part that “the States which consider that it is a genocide must by international conventions to intervene”.

“Is this what people want? I don’t think so, ”commented Mr. Macron.

Presidents Macron and Zelensky spoke again in the evening, the Ukrainian presidency reported, according to which the Ukrainian head of state “thanked” his French counterpart for the arms deliveries that had taken place.

Paris announced Thursday that the French embassy in Ukraine, which had been transferred to Lviv (west) in early March after the start of the Russian offensive, would return to Kyiv.

“Mariupol remains Ukrainian”

The heaviest human toll of this war.

The governor of the region spoke of 20-22,000 dead, the testimonies report a catastrophic situation and bodies strewing the streets, but the battle is not over.

The mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boitchenko, thus denied Thursday the capture by Russian forces of its port area, announced the day before by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“The Russians are deploying new forces, but we are holding our line and Mariupol remains a Ukrainian city, which makes Russia furious,” he said.

On the spot, AFP journalists embarked with the Russian forces saw Wednesday the charred ruins of this city which the Ukrainian authorities say “90% destroyed”.

Ukraine announced on Thursday a resumption of evacuations of civilians via nine humanitarian corridors, in particular from Mariupol.

The conquest of this city would allow the Russians to consolidate their territorial gains by linking the Donbass region, partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, with Crimea annexed the same year.

The bombardments also continue in the eastern part of Ukraine, where they have caused the death of seven people in the past 24 hours in Kharkiv, a city in the northeast also besieged since the start of the Russian invasion.

According to the governor of the region, more than 500 civilians including 24 children have been killed in the Kharkiv region since the start of the Russian invasion.

Analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin, mired in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, wants to secure a victory in Donbass ahead of the May 9 military parade in Red Square marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis in 1945.