Touched Wednesday, sunk Thursday. the Moskva sank in the Black Sea, as admitted by the Russian Ministry of Defense on the evening of April 14. How to explain this loss of the Russian flagship? Accident or shooting? The Moscow and kyiv versions diverge. Still, it’s abouta major setback for the Russian military since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Franceinfo takes stock of the circumstances ofand this shipwreck.
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kyiv claims to have targeted him with missiles
For the Ukrainian government, there is no doubt. If the Moskva lies at the bottom of the Black Sea, it is because the Ukrainian armed forces hit it with Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles, inflicting“significant damage”according to the Ukrainian governor of the Odessa region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky even drove home the point, in his daily video message, by mentioning “those who showed that Russian ships can only go to the bottom”.
Moscow evokes an accidental fire
For its part, Moscow has not reported any attacks. The Russian Ministry of Defense admitted, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, that the cruiser had been “severely damaged” by a fire which caused the explosion of ammunition, and that its crew of more than 500 men had to be evacuated to nearby Russian ships. No statement of possible losses was provided.
Earlier in the day on Wednesday, the ministry assured that “the hearth of the fire” was “circumscribed” and that an investigation had been opened to find out the causes of the accident. According to the Russian version, the ship then capsized while being towed to the Crimean city of Sevastopol for repairs.
the Moskva “lost stability due to hull damage sustained in the fire as a result of the detonation of ammunition. In rough sea conditions, the ship sank”said the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The Pentagon does not confirm the firings
The loss of Moskva is “a blow” brought to the Russian fleet, the Pentagon commented, with “consequences on their abilities” of fight. But US spokesman John Kirby refrained from confirming the origin of the fire on board the Moskva.
“We are unable to officially confirm independently what led to the sinking of the vessel.”
John Kirby, Pentagon spokesmanquoted by AFP
“But we are not in a position to refute the Ukrainian version either”he added. “It’s possible they hit it with a Neptune missile or maybe more.”
For American experts, this Ukrainian attack is considered more credible than the Russian explanation. “Given that there is a war going on and the Ukrainians have this anti-ship capability, it is more likely that it was caused by these cruise missiles”believes the consultant Mark Cancian, interviewed by the Washington Post.
A ship from Soviet times
the Moskva was put into service in 1983, during Soviet times, under the name of Slava (“Glory”). The Atlant-class missile cruiser was designed as an aircraft carrier destroyer. This 186 m building had been renamed Moskva (“Moscow”) in May 1995. According to the Ministry of Defense, its crew can number up to 680 men.
the Moskva had been sent to Georgia in August 2008. Russia had not given any information at the time as to its missions, but according to a senior Georgian military official interviewed by AFP, it had been used to bomb Georgian forces from the port of Otchamchiré. He was deployed from September 2015 to January 2016 in the Mediterranean during the war in Syria.
After a refit between 2018 and 2020, the cruiser dropped anchor in early February off Sevastopol, Crimea, officially for exercises. But in the early days of the war in Ukraine, he took part in an attack on the military base on Serpents’ Island.
A strategic loss for Moscow
the Moskva was a “key element of efforts [russes] to establish naval dominance in the Black Sea”, recalled the Pentagon. It was armed with 16 Bazalt/Voulkan anti-ship missiles, Fort missiles, the navy version of the long-range S-300 missiles, and short-range Ossa missiles. It also had rocket launchers, cannons and torpedoes.
The cruiser protected the Russian army within a radius of 150 km around its position. “With the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits closed by Turkey to Russian ships, it will be difficult for Russia to replace its air defense capabilities”, deciphers an expert quoted by AFP. But “the Russian fleet was not put out of action”he tempers, with in particular modern frigates equipped with an air defense with a more reduced range.
“It is a very strong symbolic loss”concludes former Admiral Pascal Ausseur. “It was the command boat, there was probably the staff commanding the naval group there.” The Russians will therefore have to designate another building to carry out these coordination functions. According to Pascal Ausseur, the loss of Moskva “shows real vulnerability” of the Russian Navy.