The Armed Forces of Ukraine severely damaged russia’s Black Sea flagship 'Moskva' missile cruiser with "Neptune" missiles on Wednesday, April 13. The information was provided by the Head of the Odesa region military administration Maksym Marchenko and confirmed in the Presidential Office.
“It has been confirmed that the missile cruiser Moskva today went exactly where it was sent by our border guards on Snake Island!” Marchenko said.
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Ukrainian presidential aide Oleksiy Arestovych said the ship could have as many as 510 crew members on board.
In its turn the russia’s defense ministry has said the entire crew of the warship Moskva, reported to be struck by Ukraine in the Black Sea late on Wednesday night, has been evacuated after an ammunition explosion resulted in a fire on the ship.
“The cruiser ‘Moskva’ of the Black Sea Fleet was seriously damaged as a result of the detonation of ammunition that occurred as a result of a fire, the crew was evacuated,” Russian state media outlet TASS reported, citing the Russian defene ministry.
“As a result of a fire, ammunition detonated on the Moskva missile cruiser. The ship was seriously damaged. The crew was completely evacuated,” the ministry added.
An audio recording, purportedly of Ukrainian troops reporting the attack on the cruiser, circulated on social media.
Earlier today, the video footage of burning flagship "Moskva" was posted on Telegram channel Conflict Zone:
The ship was famously defied by Ukrainian troops on Snake Island at the start of the war
On the first day of the invasion, the small garrison refused calls from the ship for it to surrender, telling the ship to “go fuck yourself”.
According to the Centre for strategic communications and information security, 'Moskva' missile cruiser was the one to actively shell Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion and participated in the shelling of Zmiinyi island.
The 12,500 tonne ship has a crew of around 500. Russian news agencies said the Moskva was armed with 16 anti-ship ‘Vulkan’ cruise missiles, which have a range of at least 700km (440 miles).
The first operational prototype of the mobile anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) system ‘Neptune’ was first demonstrated to the public while performing initial test launches on the 5th of April 2019.
The Neptune is a domestic collaboration involving both state-owned and private-sector defense contractors.The project is aimed to provide Ukraine with a cost-effective 300-km-range ACSM capability.
This shore-based ASCM system has been developed by Ukraine with maximum reliance on domestic resources and capacities. It was necessary in view of the need to save resources that are nothing but limitless in a country at war, and to expedite development and production – this all in order to provide, within the shortest possible time, the Ukrainian Navy with a weapon capability needed for securing the country’s national interests.
As Defense Express reported Ukraine’s Navy received prototypes of Neptune missile system in the middle March, 2021.
Defense Express reported that earlier DKKB Luch disclosed countries willing to purchase its Vilkha MLRS, Neptune ASCM Systems.
Last month Ukraine said it had destroyed a large Russian landing support ship, the Orsk, on the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast of the Black Sea.
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