The cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, has sunk, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“During the towing of the Moskva cruiser in the port, the ship lost its stability due to the damage suffered to the hull by the ammunition explosion. “The ship sank in turbulent conditions,” said a statement from Russia’s Defense Ministry, quoted by AFP, citing TASS.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the Soviet-built cruiser had been severely damaged by fire, which – according to Kyiv – was the result of a Ukrainian rocket attack.
Moscow said the warship’s crew had been evacuated and measures had been taken to tow the cruiser to port.
The southern military command of the Ukrainian army had announced that it had hit the Russian cruiser Moskva with Neptune missiles, causing great material damage.
The Soviet origin
The 186-meter Atlant missile-class cruiser was put into service in 1983, during the Soviet era, under the name Slava (Glory). His mission is the destruction of aircraft carriers.
It was renamed Moskva in May 1995. It was armed with 16 Bazalt / Voulkan anti-ship missiles, Fort missiles, the naval version of the S-300 long-range missiles, and Ossa short-range missiles. It also had rocket launchers, cannons and torpedoes.
According to the Ria Novosti agency, Moskva has been modernized twice in its history, the second in the period 2018-2020.
His crew consisted of 680 men, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Three wars
Its first war was the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008. Russia has not provided information on its missions, but according to a high-ranking Georgian official, the Russian cruiser entered the port of Ochamchire to bomb Georgian troops in the Kontori Valley. forces, which then lost control of the last zone they still held in the separatist region of Abkhazia.
The then President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev had expressed his “gratitude” to the crew of the warship for its “courage and determination” during the conflict.
Following Russia’s intervention on the side of Bashar al-Assad in the war in Syria, Moskva was deployed from September 2015 to January 2016 in the eastern Mediterranean to ensure, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the “air defense” of the Russian base of Hmeimim.
Shortly afterwards, Vladimir Putin awarded the entire crew the Nakhimov Medal for his “courage and determination.”
From Sevastopol, Crimea, which is the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Moskva took part in the attack launched on February 24, 2022 by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine.
Diplomatic missions
The cruiser Moskva, still called Slava, took part in the Malta summit between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George W. Bush on the Maxime Gorki ship in December 1989, shortly after the fall of the Wall.
The ship also participated in the Yalta Nuclear Disarmament Conference in August 1990.
He took part in military exercises and visited many European, Asian and African ports.
It had also hosted foreign leaders. Vladimir Putin received Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi or, during his visit to Italy, the then Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi in Sochi in August 2014 with military honors.
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