Hot: Russian missile cruiser explodes, causing serious damage, Ukraine immediately shows off its victory

The entire crew of the missile cruiser Moscow was evacuated after an ammunition depot explosion caused by a fire, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement cited by Russian media.

The Russian military said the cruiser suffered “serious damage”, adding that the cause of the fire was under investigation.

The bodyguard missile cruiser of project 1164 “Moscow” is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. The ship was built at the Nikolaev shipyard and put into operation in 1982. The ship was originally named “Slava”. Slava-class missile cruiser, armed with 16 anti-ship missiles and numerous anti-aircraft missiles, torpedoes and artillery. The cruiser Moscow has been engaged in operations off the coast of Ukraine since February 2022.

Ukrainian officials on the evening of April 13 announced that a battery of their Neptune anti-ship missiles hidden in Odessa successfully attacked the Moscow ship twice, setting the cruiser on fire. This information was also given by Maksim Marchenko, head of the military junta in Odessa, and Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry in Kiev.

However, they have not provided any evidence for their claims to be true. A Ukrainian Telegram channel is said to have posted – then deleted – a photo of an Iranian ship burning and sinking in the Gulf of Oman last year.

Earlier, Ukraine also claimed to have destroyed the Vasily Bykov, another ship involved in the capture of Snake Island. Ukrainian media reported on March 7 that a barrage of shells hit and sank the Bykov, after two speedboats were trapped. However, the ship itself appeared in Sevastopol on March 16, unharmed.