Russia says warship ‘seriously damaged’ by explosion
Ukraine says it struck the Moskva with two anti-ship missiles without giving evidence as Zelenskiy says Russia ramping up offensive in east and south.
THE GUARDIAN: Ukraine says it struck the Moskva with two anti-ship missiles without giving evidence as Zelenskiy says Russia ramping up offensive in east and south.
Russia says the flagship of its Black Sea fleet has been seriously damaged and its crew evacuated following an explosion that a Ukrainian official said was the result of a missile strike.
“As a result of a fire, ammunition detonated on the Moskva missile cruiser. The ship was seriously damaged,” the Russian defence ministry was quoted as saying by state-run news agency TASS, adding that the cause of the fire was being determined and that the crew had been evacuated.
“Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage to the Russian ship,” Maksym Marchenko, the governor of Odesa, wrote on Telegram.
The Moskva gained notoriety early in the war when it called on Ukrainian border troops defending the strategic Snake Island – a small outcrop in the Black Sea – to surrender, only to be defiantly refused.
More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending the besieged city of Mariupol have surrendered and the port has been captured, Moscow has said, as the presidents of four countries bordering Russia arrived in Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine.
In one of the most critical battles of the war, Russia’s defence ministry said that on Wednesday 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” near the city’s Ilyich iron and steelworks.
It later said Mariupol’s “trade seaport” was under full control of Russian forces.
There was no independent confirmation of the claims. Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had no information about the surrender and the Ukrainian military command said only that Russian forces were attacking the Azovstal industrial area and the port.
