New Delhi: The missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet — infamously told to “go f***” itself by a Ukrainian soldier on the first day of the war — has sustained heavy damage after being engulfed in a blaze, leading to claims and counterclaims by Ukraine and Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Defence announced Thursday that a fire onboard had caused a munitions explosion, and that the entire crew had been evacuated.
However, Maksym Marchenko, the governor of Ukraine’s Odessa Oblast, declared that the cruiser had been struck by two Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles that had been indigenously developed in Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych also claimed that Ukraine struck the cruiser. Posting via a YouTube stream, Arestovych said, “a surprise happened”. “It burns strongly. Right now. And with this stormy sea, it is unknown whether they will be able to receive help,” said Arestovych whilst referring to the fire on Moskva.
Also Read: Status of Ukraine war: Battlefield moves east, Russian withdrawal from Kyiv & Chernihiv complete
Status of Moskva
The current status of the cruiser remains unclear; there is ambiguity as to how much damage it has sustained, and whether it’s sinking or has sunk.
There is also no clarity regarding the number of crew members who were aboard the cruiser. Usually, there are around 500 crew members on board for a Slava-class cruiser like the Moskva. There have been no updates on injuries or fatalities.
The Russian defence ministry is also investigating the cause of the fire, reported Russian state-owned news agency TASS.
Moskva (‘Moscow’), originally known as Slava (‘glory’), is the lead ship of the Slava-class guided missile cruisers — also known as Project 1164 Atlant — built indigenously by the erstwhile USSR and still in service with the Russian Navy.
Slava was laid down at a shipyard in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv — a major shipbuilding centre on the Black Sea, known as Nikolaev in Russian — in 1976, and commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1983. Decommissioned in 1990, it was reinstated as Moskva by the Russian Navy in 2000.
It is reportedly armed with 16 anti-ship Vulkan cruise missiles, which have a range of at least 700 kilometres. It is also said to carry anti-torpedo and mine-torpedo weapons. The cruiser is also equipped with a long-range S-300 surface-to-air missile air defence system.
What is the Neptune missile?
The Neptune is a Ukrainian-manufactured anti-ship missile, fired from shore to ship.
It has a target range of approximately 290-300 kilometres. It’s supposed to be set and launched from an 8×8 truck, and the flight path can be controlled by drones, according to defence reports.
The missile can target vessels with a water displacement of a maximum of 5,000 tonnes.
Reports suggest that the missile’s design is based on the Russian Kh-35 cruise missile, which the NATO categorises as the AS-20 Kayak.
After Russia’s conquest of the Crimea in 2014, Ukraine rushed to develop anti-ship missiles to offset any sea and amphibious attacks from Russia across its coastline. For this, the Kyiv-based defence developer Luch started working on the Neptune missile around 2014-2015.
After six years of research and development, the missile was inducted into the Ukrainian Navy in March 2021. However, these were prototype batteries that they received. The final versions were supposed to be delivered to the battalions in Odessa by April 2022.
If Neptune missiles did hit the Moskva, Ukraine would have delivered these important anti-ship missiles on time — boosting their defence systems.
Moskva’s operational history
Moskva took part in a military exercise with the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean in 2003. Moskva was deployed in the Black Sea in 2008 during the Russian invasion of Georgia.
The Georgian Navy hit the ship during the war in 2008, and it suffered minor damage. The cruiser further faced American warships along the coast of Syria in the Mediterranean Sea in 2013. Moskva was also responsible for blockading the Ukrainian fleet in Donuzlav lake in 2014 during the Crimean crisis.
(Edited by Manoj Ramachandran)
Also read: Russia may be firing hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, but there’s some hot air in the hype