The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that Ukraine struck the Moskva, the Russian flagship in the Black Sea, with two Neptune missiles, causing it to sink.
“She had cruise missiles on that ship that are now at the bottom of the Black Sea,” a U.S. defense official told The New York Times.
The Guardian fills in the details:
The government in Kyiv said it had destroyed the giant missile cruiser during a combat operation against Russian vessels in the Black Sea on Wednesday. The boat’s ammunition deck exploded after it was hit by two Neptune anti-ship missiles, the government said.
According to Lithuania’s foreign minister, Arvydas Anušauskas, the cruiser sent out a distress call. By 1.14am local time (2314 BST) on Thursday the Moskva was lying on its side and about half an hour later “all the electricity went out,” he posted on Facebook.
From 2am a Turkish ship managed to rescue 54 sailors. An hour later Turkey and Romania confirmed the ship had “completely sunk”. Ukrainian officials said stormy weather stopped Russian boats from carrying out an evacuation, adding: “Nature was on our side.”
Russia has not been forthcoming about the fate of the 500+ sailors onboard the ship. The Kremlin initially denied that it had been hit with a missile strike.
Anton Gerashenko, advisor to the Kyiv interior ministry, told The Evening Standard that the captain of the Moskva died in the attack.
“We do not mourn,” he added.
CNN reports on the last warship of the Moskva’s size to sink in battle:
The Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed and sunk by the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror on May 2, 1982, during the Falkland Islands war.
The destruction of the Moskva is widely seen as a public humiliation for Russia that is emblematic of its poor military campaign in Ukraine.
But the Kremlin has vowed to continue fighting. The Washington Post explains:
Russia’s Defense Ministry warned it will step up attacks on Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv in retaliation for strikes on Russian assets. Blasts were reported outside Kyiv on Friday, with Russian forces in a statement claiming to have fired missiles on a suburban factory that produces Ukrainian defense weapons.
Meanwhile, Russian forces geared up for fresh assaults in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which officials warn will be the next bloody flash point in this seven-week war. Russia appeared poised to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and escalate attacks across Ukraine’s southeast after bruising setbacks, analysts said.
Yet Ukraine continues to frustrate Moscow’s plans. The Associated Press reports:
Under relentless bombardment and a Russian blockade, the key port of Mariupol is holding out, but weapons and supplies shortages could weaken the resistance that has thwarted the Kremlin’s invasion plans.
More than six weeks after the Russian siege began, Ukrainian troops are continuing to fight the vastly superior Russian forces in ferocious battles amid the ruins of what once was a bustling city on the Sea of Azov.
The mayor says an estimated 120,000 people remain in the city, out of Mariupol’s prewar population of about 450,000.
The Ukrainians’ fight has scuttled Moscow’s designs, tying up significant Russian forces and delaying a planned offensive in eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland, Donbas. The Kremlin hopes an attack in the east could reverse the battlefield fortunes for Russia after a humiliating failure to quickly storm the capital, Kyiv.