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His Grace Magazine!
April 2022
Flagship Moskva Sinks
Russian Warship is heavily damaged by the Ukrainians and sinks in the Black Sea
R
ussia's Black Sea flagship, a guided missile cruiser that was a target of the Ukrainians in the beginning of the war, sank on Thursday after it was heavily damaged April 14th. Ukrainians say their armed forces hit the ship with a missile. Russia confirmed that a fire had broken out aboard the warship Moskva, but they said it wasn't from an attack. At the time, the United States and other Western officials were not able to confirm what had caused the fire. This is a huge loss for Russia; the warship is named for the Russian capital and is a catastrophic symbolic loss for Moscow, as their soldiers are regrouping for another offensive in the eastern parts of Ukraine after they had to retreat from the northern areas which included the capital Kyiv. The Russian Defense Minister had said that the ship sank during a
storm while they were towing the ship to port. Russia had said earlier that the flames on the ship carrying 500 sailors caused them to evacuate the ship. Later they said the fire was under control and they would tow the ship back to port, with all the missile launchers undamaged. The warship carries 16 long range cruise missiles and its sinking seriously decreases Russia's firepower in the Black Sea. Also,
this is a blow to Russian reputation in this war, and it's already seen as a historic mistake. The war is now in its eighth week. The Russian invasion has completely stalled because of the hard, courageous fighting from the Ukrainian soldiers, everyone that has picked arms to fight and to the Western countries that have helped by sending much needed weapons. When Russia first invaded Ukraine, the
Moskva was the warship that told the Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island to surrender. News of the warship's damage eclipsed the news of Russia's claims that they were advancing further into the southern port city of Mariupol, where they have been fiercely fighting the Ukrainians since the start of the war in late February. Russia's Defense Minister said the ammunition that was on board the warship exploded as a result of the fire, but he didn't say what started the fire. The Neptune weapon is an anti-ship missile that was recently developed by Ukraine that was based on an earlier Russian design. The launchers are on the back of trucks that are near the coast line. Washington said the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175) miles away. The Moskva would have been in that range, where it was when the fire started.
