Russian military took the bodies of dead marines and classified documents from the sunken missile cruiser Moskva, which sank in mid-April this year. The details of the "search and rescue operation" were told Crimea.Realities project by Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine.
According to the official, the operation was carried out for at least two weeks. Russians did not publicly say about it.
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"From 5 to 7 ships were involved. Basically, these were rescue ships, boats, and tugboats that took out the bodies [of those who died on the Moskva cruiser], removed all the classified equipment from there, cleared everything on this cruiser – they got out what was left there and what should not get into the hands of a third country," Skibitskyi said.
As Defense Express earlier reported, the initial aim of the operation was, supposedly, to raise the warship on the surface, but it looks like russians did not go as far as that. Nevertheless, the extraction of dead bodies might be the main goal since russia is hiding the true death toll on the ship.
Russian defense ministry claimed to have evacuated 396 crewmen from the ship before it sank on April 14, 27 personnel went missing. While the Ukrainian side says that russian army had managed to save only 58 out of 510 people stationed on the missile cruiser at that time.
The russian ministry of defense confirmed the missile crusier "Moskva" sink on April 14. The media and a few Ukrainian officials said it was hit with Ukrainian-made "Neptune" missiles. The loss of the flagship of the russian Black Sea fleet was a hard blow to russian air defense capabilities in the Black Sea area and the whole of southern Ukraine, as well as the morale of the aggressor country.
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