Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
Ukraine on Thursday (April 14) claimed that it has hit Russian Navy’s Black Sea flagship with Neptune missiles and caused damage to the vessel.
Maxim Marchenko, who is the Odesa state regional administrator, stated in a social media post that the Russian ship was hit by two missiles. Although, he did not give further evidence.
In a post on Telegram, he said. “Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage.”
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On the other hand, Russia claimed otherwise. Contrary to Ukrainian claims, Russian state media said that the Russian warship in the Black Sea was “seriously damaged” by an ammunition explosion.
The country’s Interfax news agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying to state that the incident on the Moskva missile cruiser occurred after ammunition on board blew up.
In a statement, it said: “As the result of a fire on the Moskva missile cruiser, ammunition detonated.” The authorities also informed that the crew had been evacuated and the cause of the fire was being determined.
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Ukrainian military hit Russia cruiser Moskva, which is the same warship that has been told by Snake Island defenders to go fuck itself. It was hit with Neptune anti-ship cruise missile that was developed by Kyiv based Luch Design Bureau in 2014-2020 pic.twitter.com/cWrIOZjhbi
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) April 13, 2022
The mentioned warship, Moskva, was originally built in the Soviet era in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv. Media reports had stated that it had entered service in the early 1980s.
It was previously deployed in the Syria conflict with a crew of 510. In Syria, it served as naval protection for the Russian forces’ Hmeimim airbase.
The missile cruiser carries 16 P-1000 Vulkan anti-ship missiles as well as an array of anti-submarine and mine-torpedo weapons, the reports said.
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