Russia confirms sinking of warship ‘Moskva,’ as Ukraine claims responsibility

Russia has officially confirmed that the Defense Ministry briefed President Vladimir Putin on the details of the fire that broke out on board the missile cruiser ‘Moskva’, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

“Putin, as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, constantly receives reports from the military on all developments,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference.

In response to a question about whether the Ministry of Defense briefed Putin on the details of the accident of the cruiser ‘Moskva’, the spokesman said: “Yes, of course.”

Earlier Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that a fire broke out on Wednesday on board the cruiser “Moskva”, without causing any damage to its missile capabilities.

The ministry said, in a statement, that “the source of the ignition is internal, and there is no fire on the surface, while the crew of the cruiser was evacuated to the ships of the Black Sea Fleet in the region.”

And on Wednesday, Maksym Marchenko, head of the regional military administration in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, said in a press statement that the Ukrainian army hit the warship Moskva with two Neptune anti-ship missiles, which caused serious damage.”

“Moskva” is the flagship of the “Project 1164 Atlant” class of guided missile cruisers in the Russian Navy, and entered service in 1983 under the name “Glory”, and then in 1996 under its current name.

On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, which was followed by angry international reactions and the imposition of “tough” economic and financial sanctions on Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian airstrikes hit Kyiv overnight, striking an area to the south of the capital, as Moscow claimed it had destroyed a factory used to produce anti-ship missiles.

Attack came hours after warship Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, was confirmed to have sunk after Ukraine said it was shot with two rockets.

Moscow vowed to step up attacks on Kyiv in response to strikes on its territory.

Russia bombed a factory in Kyiv overnight which it claims made the missiles that sunk the Moskva, as the Kremlin vowed to step up attacks on the Ukrainian capital.

Russia says it blew up a Ukrainian munitions factory near Kyiv overnight using cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea.

Moscow says the factory was used to manufacture the same kinds of missiles that were used to sink the Moskva, its Black Sea flagship, on Thursday.

Heavy explosions were seen overnight in Kyiv before Russia’s Ministry of Defence said early Friday that it had destroyed the ‘Vizar’ plant which manufactures anti-ship missiles and other Ukrainian rockets.

The attack came just a day after the Moskva – the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet – was sunk after a fire an explosion on board that Ukraine says was caused when it was shot by two cruise missiles. Meanwhile President Zelensky, speaking in a Thursday night address to the nation, praised the heroism of Ukrainians in holding out against Russia’s invasion for 50 days – in spite of warnings they would last just five.

Zelensky said he remembered the first day of the invasion when many world leaders, unsure whether Ukraine could survive, advised him to leave the country.

He added: ‘But they didn’t know how brave Ukrainians are, how much we value freedom and the possibility to live the way we want.’

Zelensky told Ukrainians on Thursday they should be proud of having survived 50 days under Russian attack when the Russians ‘gave us a maximum of five’.

He called it ‘an achievement of millions of Ukrainians, of everyone who on February 24 made the most important decision of their life – to fight’.

Russia’s defence ministry warned early Friday that it will step up attacks on Kyiv in the coming days, in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.

Images from Belgorod in the early hours of Friday showed anti-aircraft missiles in the sky, suggesting fresh strikes were underway.

Meanwhile, the military claimed to have shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter involved in the attack on the Bryansk region near Chernihiv.

Ukraine has not acknowledged carrying out any such strikes, but has also not denied being behind them.

‘The number and scale of missile strikes on targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist attacks or acts of sabotage on Russian territory committed by the Kyiv nationalist regime,’ Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.

The explosions came hours after the Russian defence ministry announced that the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, had sunk while being towed after being badly damaged – reportedly leaving Putin ‘livid’.

Separately, the Russian defence ministry said Friday its strategic rocket forces ‘eliminated up to 30 Polish mercenaries’ in a strike on the village of Izyumskoe, not far from the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.

It said the mercenaries belonged to ‘a private Polish military company’, but did not say whether any Ukrainian troops were also killed.

The reported rocket strike was one of the biggest against foreign targets in Ukraine since another missile killed what the Russian military claimed was up to 180 foreign mercenaries in Western Ukraine last month.

Ukraine is continuing to take the attack to Russia as its invasion falters – sinking the Moskva, striking Belgorod, and battling in eastern Ukraine. But Moscow claims its troops are on the verge of taking Mariupol, which has now been under siege for almost two months