New photos and a brief video appeared on social media on Monday morning showing Russia’s missile ship the Moskva, badly damaged and on fire in the hours before it sank in the Black Sea last Thursday. (14).
The sinking of the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet was the biggest loss of a naval ship during the war in 40 years — and a great shame for Russia.
The images show Moskva leaning to one side, with black holes from possible missile puncture marks and significant damage just above the waterline on the left, in the middle of the boat.
A large column of black smoke can be seen rising, partially obscuring the front of the affected ship.
Analysts told the CNN that the warship in the images resembled the Moskva, a Slava-class guided missile destroyer and the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
contradictions
Ukraine and Russia provided conflicting versions of what happened during Thursday’s Black Sea incident.
Moscow denied the Ukrainian version of events, that the Moskva sank after being hit by Ukrainian missiles, but admitted that the ship was destroyed.
Russia insisted the reason for the sinking was a fire, but the United States confirmed Ukraine’s report on Friday, and a senior defense official said the United States believed two Ukrainian Neptune missiles hit the Russian warship.
Carl Schuster, a retired US Navy captain and former director of operations for the US Pacific Command’s Joint Information Center, told CNN on Monday that the missiles were likely to have penetrated under the ship’s bridge and detonated.
“Assuming the photo is not in any way fake or doctored, it looks like the missiles have charged forward, which is not unexpected,” he said. “Anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) tend to target the radar return center, which is usually the forward section of the superstructure.”
Independent author and defense analyst HI Sutton told CNN that the damage shown in the photos “does not rule out a missile attack, and remains the probable cause.”
“Possible hole marks on the side of the hull are visible below where the fire is. But these would need closer scrutiny to confirm if they were caused by missiles or if they are simply fire damage,” he said.
The Moskva was armed with an array of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as torpedoes, naval weapons and missile defense systems, which meant it would have a large amount of explosives on board.
No reports of injuries
The Russian military has not released any information about casualties aboard the Moskva.
Russia’s Defense Ministry released a video on Saturday showing what was described as officers and sailors from the sunken warship in two-line formation. The number of sailors in formation was unclear. It was unclear how many crew were on board or how many survived.
Sutton says the footage shows that all the liferafts have been launched, “All the aft liferafts have been launched, although one remains on the aft deck. This suggests that the crew has already abandoned ship at this point,” he said.
A large rescue tug can be seen spraying the battleship with water on the far side.
The Kremlin said on Monday that it had seen the Moskva photos but could not verify them.
“Yes, we have indeed seen the photos, but we cannot say how authentic and true they are,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
A senior US defense official, who said he had also seen photos and video of the burning ship, told CNN on Monday that the United States “cannot independently verify these images.”
“But the footage itself is consistent with what we had assessed as damage to the ship,” the official said.
The authors of the images and video are unknown, but they were taken from a boat near the stricken warship.
In the short video taken from the same location, the voice of an invisible person can be heard shouting in Russian: “F*** what you did!
Russian morals
The Moskva was one of Russia’s most visible assets in the Ukrainian war and its loss could affect the morale of Russian troops.
Tellingly, the Russian government did not acknowledge casualties in the sinking of the ship, a stark contrast to public discussion of the Kursk submarine disaster, which claimed the lives of 118 sailors in 2000.
Analysts say the loss of the battleship has hit the heart of the Russian Navy hard as well as national pride, comparable to the loss of a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.
“Just the loss of a ballistic missile submarine or the Kutznetsov (Russia’s only aircraft carrier) would inflict a more serious blow to Russian morale and the navy’s reputation among the Russian public,” Schuster said.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
