© Russian Defence Press Service/APRussian missile cruiser Moskva on patrol in the Mediterranean Sea near Syrian coast in 2015.
following reports of the sinking of its warship
Moskva in the Black Sea. While Ukraine has been claiming that it destroyed the Russian naval vessel,
Russia said that the ship was damaged in a massive fire onboard.A video clip from Kremlin's main propaganda mouthpiece Russia 1 has gone viral showing the presenter Olga Skabeyeva saying that the military conflict has escalated into what can
"safely be called World War III".
Attack on Kyiv will increase, warns RussiaRussia's Defense Ministry on Friday warned to ramp up missile attacks on Ukrainian capital Kyiv in response to Ukraine's alleged aggression on Russian territory.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said:
"The number and the scale of missile attacks on objects in Kyiv will be ramped up in response to the Kyiv nationalist regime committing any terrorist attacks or diversions on the Russian territory."
Russia previously accused Ukraine of shelling or attacking its border regions. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed striking targets in Russia, and the reports could not be independently verified.
However,
Ukrainian officials insist their forces did strike a key Russian warship with missiles. If true, the reported Wednesday attack on the guided-missile cruiser
Moskva, named for the Russian capital, would represent an important victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia.
The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet sank while being towed to port Thursday after suffering heavy damage under circumstances that remained in dispute. Moscow acknowledged a fire on board but not any attack. U.S. and other Western officials
could not confirm what caused the blaze, AP reported.
The
Moskva had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles. If Ukrainian forces took out the vessel, it was likely the largest warship to be sunk in combat since the Falklands War. A British submarine torpedoed an Argentine navy cruiser called the ARA
General Belgrano during the 1982 conflict, killing over 300 sailors.
Comment: There are conflicting theories, but the truth resides at the
bottom of the sea:
The Russian Defense Ministry said the ship sank in a storm while being towed to a port. Russia earlier said the flames on the ship, which would typically have 500 sailors aboard, forced the entire crew to evacuate. Later it said the blaze had been contained.
Zelensky noted: "those who showed that Russian warships can sail away, even if it's to the bottom" of the sea.
The Moskva was reportedly the ship that called on Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in a standoff. Ukraine and its supporters consider it an iconic moment of defiance. The country recently unveiled a postage stamp commemorating it.
Maksym Marchenko, the governor of the Odessa region, across the Black Sea to the northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians struck the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused "serious damage."
Russia's Defense Ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire, without saying what caused the blaze. It said the "main missile weapons" were not damaged. In addition to the cruise missiles, the warship also had air-defense missiles and other guns.
The Neptune is an anti-ship missile that was recently developed by Ukraine and based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks stationed near the coast, and, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away. That would have put the Moskva within range, based on where it was when the fire began.
While the U.S. was not able to confirm Ukraine's claims of striking the warship, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan called it:
"A big blow to Russia. They've had to kind of choose between two stories: One story is that it was just incompetence, and the other was that they came under attack, and neither is a particularly good outcome for them."
Comment: There are conflicting theories, but the truth resides at the bottom of the sea: