Main Russian warship evacuated after fire, Ukraine claims attack | Abroad

Read everything about the war in Ukraine in this file.

The Russian army says it is investigating the cause of the fire on board. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian governor in Odessa and Ukrainian media reported that the Moskva had been hit by so-called Neptune cruise missiles, but this claim has not been independently verified. Russia says nothing about a possible attack.

The ship was used to capture Snake Island at the beginning of the invasion. There it received the now famous remark “Russian warship, fuck off” from Ukrainian soldiers. The governor in Odessa writes on Telegram that “the ship is now exactly where it was sent by our soldiers”.

The Moskva is the main warship that Russia has deployed in the Black Sea. According to the Ukrainian authorities, there is room on board for more than 500 crew members. The ship was commissioned by the Russian army in the 1980s, after being built in the Soviet era in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv. In the past, the Moskva has been deployed in the conflict in Syria, among other things.

It is not clear whether there are any injuries or deaths as a result of the fire on the 186-meter-long ship. A Ukrainian presidential adviser reports on YouTube that the fire on board is said to be serious and the ship is in stormy seas. As a result, the evacuation would be difficult. This too cannot be independently confirmed. Al Jazeera reports based on local sources that the ship has capsized.

Late last month, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported that it had destroyed a Russian troopship in the port of Berdyansk, on the Sea of ​​Azov. The attack was later confirmed by the British Army. Since then, the Russian authorities have not disclosed what happened to that ship.

“It looks like the Ukrainians have won a minor victory at sea,” Professor Michael Petersen, director of the Russian Maritime Studies Institute at the US Naval War College, told the BBC. He calls it a victory with “symbolic and military” value.

This is the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. According to Petersen, the “incident” with the Moskva may have “significant military value” because the “Russian navy may now feel obliged to operate further from the coast than before”.