Ukraine Claim Responsibility For The Damage Of Russia Warship

Russia says damage caused by ammunition detonating ‘as a result of a fire’, Ukraine says it targeted the vessel with missile strikes.

Russia’s Black Sea flagship leading the naval assault on Ukraine has been “seriously damaged” by an explosion that a Ukrainian official said was the result of a missile strike.

The damage to the Moskva missile cruiser was caused by ammunition detonating “as a result of a fire”, the Russian defence ministry was quoted by state media on Thursday as saying, adding that the cause of the blaze was being investigated.

The governor of Odesa said Ukrainian forces hit the vessel with missile strikes, while presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said “we don’t understand what happened”.

The crew had been evacuated, the Russian defence ministry said, but “the ship was seriously damaged”.

The Moskva is the second major ship known to have suffered serious damage since the start of the war. Last month Ukraine said it had destroyed a landing support ship, the Orsk, on the smaller Sea of Azov.

Moscow’s Black Sea fleet is blockading Mariupol and off the coast of Odesa, and its ships have been used to bombard coastal cities.

The Moskva gained notoriety early in the war when it called on Ukrainian border troops defending the strategic Snake Island to surrender, only to be defiantly refused.

It was previously deployed in the Syrian conflict where it served as naval protection for the Russian forces’ Hmeimim airbase.