Exactly 1 year ago, on April 13, 2022, at approximately 6:52 p.m., the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the help of the Ukraine-made Neptune antiship missile system hit the Moskva missile cruiser, which at that time was approximately 80 nautical miles from Odessa and 50 miles from the border territorial waters of Ukraine.
It took this Russian warship a little more than a day to finally go to the bottom. On the evening of April 14, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation acknowledged the fact of the death of the Moskva cruiser. However, at that time the russians claimed that their ship with a full displacement of up to 11.5 thousand tons and a hull length of 186 meters went to the bottom due to "bad weather conditions" while being towed to the port of destination.
Read more: Russia’s Black Sea Flagship 'Moskva' Was hit by Ukraine's Neptune Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles (Video)
Finding Sunk Cruiser Moskva: russia Try to Raise the Warship from the Black Sea Bottom
However, how "strong" the "storm" was at that time is shown by the last photos of the Moskva cruiser taken before the sinking - the sea was perfectly smooth, on the other hand, the former flagship of the Black Sea Fleet of the russian federation was literally smoking like it was the last time.
The damage to the ship's hull indicates that a successful hit by the Neptune anti-ship missile detonated the ammunition of the S-300 "Fort" air defense systems, the Osa air defense system, and the AK-630 naval automatic artillery installations. At the same time, it is indicative that these air defense systems were not even deployed in a combat position, and this indicates that the crew of the Moskva cruiser literally "slept through" the attack.
Russians Took Bodies and Classified Documents from Sunken Moskva
However, it can also be stated that the crew of the Moskva cruiser also "slept" in the struggle for the survival of the ship and the conduct of an organized rescue operation. For example, all life rafts were dropped from the cruiser, but it seems that only a very small number of russian sailors were able to use them, not all of them were lucky enough to survive. This is evidenced, for example, by "artifacts" that were washed up by the current to the coast near Odessa.
When the sinking of the Moskva cruiser is mentioned in Ukraine, it is customary to note in particular that the Russians lost their flagships during the war at sea only twice - during the Battle of Tsushima in 1904 and in April 2022. But this is exactly the case when the language of historical analogies "falters" and does not reveal the full depth of the victory that was won with the help of the Neptune.
Who Helped Destroy russian 'Moskva' Cruiser and What Role Bayraktar TB2s Played in the Operation
On the one hand, the "flagship" ships can also include the Marat Battleship of the Baltic Fleet of the Second World War time, which was sunk during the Luftwaffe raid on Kronstadt in 1941.
And on the other hand, the Moskva is the only flagship of the russian fleet so far, which was destroyed by an enemy with a potential many times smaller and the attack on which was carried out entirely from a coastal missile launcher.
Read more: Neptun ASCM plus Vilkha MLRS: To Destroy Moskva Due to Ukrainian Defense Industry's Missile Program
