Russia War Ship Sinking After Missile Strike

Multiple black marks scar the port-side of the ship, including several near deck level where smoke appears to have streamed out of portholes and left black marks on the paint. But there are also dark marks close to the waterline that don’t match the position of portholes and suggest the ship has sustained external damage.

That means the images are largely consistent with Ukrainian descriptions of the sinking – that the Moskva was hit by two missiles on its port side which sparked a fire and caused it to roll – and contradict Russia’s account which was that the ship suffered a fire and internal explosion in rough seas.

Analysts and experts who reviewed the images say they do appear genuine. It is unlikely that Russia will confirm the authenticity of the pictures, amid a near-total information blackout around the sinking which is a huge embarrassment to Vladimir Putin’s beleaguered armed forces.

Moscow did stage what appeared to be a parade of crew members in the port of Sevastopol – in occupied Crimea – on Saturday, during which the captain of the warship and between 150 and 250 members of its crew were shown on camera alongside Black Sea Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov. The Moskva typically carries up to 510 sailors, and there was no word on the whereabouts of the remaining crew or their condition.

But horror accounts of the sinking have started to emerge from conscripts serving on board the ship, with one telling his parents that at least 40 members of the crew were killed with ‘many’ left missing or maimed with lost limbs after the strike.

Images have emerged which appear to show the Russian warship Moskva heavily damaged and on fire in the Black Sea shortly before it sank. The picture shows heavy damage to the left side of the vessel, which is largely consistent with Ukrainian accounts that they shot it with two missiles before it rolled and went under

The pictures seem to contradict Russian accounts of the sinking, after Moscow claimed the warship sank in choppy seas while being towed to the port of Sevastopol following an explosion on board

Moskva (pictured last leaving port on April 10) got into trouble on April 14 while sailing around 60 miles off the coast of Odesa – Ukraine’s largest port – before Moscow confirmed she had sunk on April 15

Parents of another conscript say they have found out some 200 were wounded – many with horrific burns and other major injuries.

‘I first heard from him only on 15 April, two days after the incident,’ a distraught mother told Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s leading investigative media outlet which is now operating outside Russia after being gagged by Putin.

‘My son said the cruiser was hit from the land, from the Ukrainian side, because the fire on board would not have started without a reason. There are people who were killed, wounded and missing.

‘My son called me as soon as they were given phones [after being rescued]. Their documents and phones were on the cruiser. He called me, and he cried over what he had seen. It was horrendous. Clearly not everyone survived.’

She said: ‘Most of the wounded have limbs torn off, because of the explosions from both the missiles and the detonated ammunition. My son was crying when he called me on 15 April.

‘He said: ‘Mamochka (tender for mum), I never thought I’d get into such a mess during supposedly peaceful times. I won’t even tell you the details of what I’ve seen, it was so horrendous.’

The mother said: ‘I don’t want to share his name because I am scared to damage my son. They signed non-disclosure agreements before boarding the cruiser. Please understand me, I am terrified. I am petrified, and I don’t know how I will wait for my son to return.’

She indicated that the Defence Ministry is stopping the survivors from going home, perhaps to prevent accounts of the calamity for Putin reaching the outside world.

‘I’ve no idea how I’ll live through this while waiting for my son to return, waiting for him to finish his service. It’s awful. And the [state] media, of course, doesn’t give any details. Why? Because the Ministry of Defence doesn’t want to admit defeat by Ukraine. It doesn’t want to admit that such a cruiser sank.’

Separately, a father has vowed to find out the truth about his conscript son Yegor Shkrebets, 20, a ship’s cook on the Moskva, now missing presumed dead.