Big blow to Putin as Russian warship Moskva sinks in Black Sea

In a major setback to Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the country’s missile cruiser Moskva has sunk in the Black Sea.

The 529-crew Moskva sunk on Friday (April 14) after being hit by Ukraine’s two Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles on Thursday. However, Russia denied this claim and stated that Moskva suffered damage from an accidental fire and ammunition explosion.

Moskva, which is 611 feet long, was originally commissioned into the Soviet navy in January 1983 as the Slava. It was renamed Moskva in 1995.

The Slava Class is armed with 16 P-500 Bazalt (SS-N-12 Sandbox) anti-ship missiles, 64 S-300PMU Favorit (SA-N-6 Grumble) long-range surface-to-air missiles and OSA-M (SA-N-4 Gecko) surface-to-air missile system. The system is fitted with a Zif-122 retractable rotating launcher for 9M33M missiles, according to the military website Naval-Technology.

“While being towed… towards the destined port, the vessel lost its balance due to damage sustained in the hull as fire broke out after ammunition exploded. Given the choppy seas, the vessel sank,” state news agency Tass quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.

“In the Black Sea operational zone, Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet – it received significant damage. A fire broke out. Other units of the ship’s group tried to help, but a storm and a powerful explosion of ammunition overturned the cruiser and it began to sink,” the statement said.

Weather over the #BlackSea has been cloudy for the past few days, hampering attempts at new imagery collections of the Russian #Moskva cruiser. Our last image, shown here, is from April 10, 2022. New imagery will be shared with our trusted media partners when available. pic.twitter.com/9tAbi4alFZ

— Maxar Technologies (@Maxar) April 14, 2022

“We’re not in a position to officially confirm independently what exactly led to the ship’s now sinking. But we’re also not in any position to refute the Ukrainian side of this. It’s certainly plausible and possible that they did in fact hit this with a Neptune missile or maybe more,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told CNN.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said it cannot independently confirm that a Ukrainian strike sunk the Moskva, though Ukrainian forces likely have the capability to have done so.

ISW said the sinking of Moskva is a “significant propaganda victory” for Ukraine. “The loss of the Moskva is a significant propaganda victory for Ukraine but will likely have only limited effects on Russian operations.”

“The sinking of the Moskva, which was involved in the infamous ‘Snake Island’ incident in the early days of the Russian invasion, is a boon to Ukrainian morale as a symbol of Ukrainian capabilities to strike back at the Russian navy. The Kremlin will conversely struggle to explain away the loss of one of the most important vessels in the Russian fleet,” the US-based ISW said.

“These strikes have been effective but limited in number compared to airstrikes and ground-launched missiles throughout the invasion and the loss of the Moskva is unlikely to be a decisive blow,” IOW said.

Moskva, the Soviet-era vessel, was a symbol of Russia’s military power. However, the sinking of the 12,490-tonne vessel won’t have a major impact on Russia’s military operations, according to experts.

“The ship is really very old. Actually, there have been plans to scrap it for five years now. It has more status value than real combat value, and in general, had nothing to do with the current operation. It will have no effect on the course of hostilities,” Russian military analyst Alexander Khramchikhin told the Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Russia has threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in and around the Baltic Sea region if Finland and Sweden join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), according to a Bloomberg report.

“In this case, there can be no talk of non-nuclear status for the Baltic… we will need to seriously strengthen our land forces and anti-aircraft and deploy substantial naval forces in the Gulf of Finland basin,” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chief of Russia’s Security Council and former president, said, as per the report.