Overview: Fire on Russian warship and Jersey freezes assets Abramovich
These are the main developments from Wednesday evening and the night from Wednesday to Thursday:
- The Russian warship Moscow is badly damaged, because of a fire and the explosion of ammunition, the Russian Ministry of Defense reports. The ship is in the Black Sea and has been evacuated. The governor of the Odessa region had previously said that Ukrainian fighters had hit the ship with two missiles, but that information has not yet been independently verified. Russia says it is investigating the cause of the fire. The Moskva was used to capture Snake Island at the outset of the invasion, when Ukrainian soldiers famously heard the remark “Russian warship, fuck off.”
- The Royal Court in the British Isle Jersey has frozen $7 billion (more than 6.4 billion euros) in assets linked to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. According to a statement from the Public Prosecution Service, several properties were searched on Tuesday related to the business activities of the businessman, whose total possessions were estimated by Forbes at 14.5 billion euros in 2021. Jersey is an interesting country to house their property because of the favorable tax arrangements for wealthy people.
- The United States is considering The New York Times to send a senior official to Kiev. It would be about a chief of staff or a senior U.S. military official and not about President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. The trip is mainly intended as a statement of support for Ukraine, but will be perceived by Russia as a provocation.