State media outlets TASS and RIA, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, said the incident caused serious damage to Moscow and the cause of the fire was being investigated. Russian reports did not provide any information about possible casualties.
But hours earlier, a Ukrainian official claimed that the Russian warship was hit by cruise missiles fired from Ukraine.
Due to a major storm over the Black Sea obscuring satellite imagery and sensory satellite data, CNN has not been able to visually confirm that the ship struck.
Whatever the cause of the fire, analysts say it is a major blow to the Russian Navy as well as national pride, which today is compared to the loss of a US Navy warship or an aircraft carrier during World War II. Is. She goes.
“The loss of only one ballistic missile submarine or Kutznetsov (Russia’s lone aircraft carrier) would be another serious blow to Russian morale and the Navy’s reputation with the Russian public,” said Carl Schuster, a retired US Navy captain and former director of the Navy. Navy. Operations at the Joint Intelligence Center of the US Pacific Command.
Alessio Petalano, professor of war and strategy at King’s College in London, said losing the battleship would be a “big blow” to Russia.
“Ships operate away from the public’s attention and their movements are rarely the subject of news. But they are large floating pieces of national territory, and when you lose one, a major, political and symbolic message – Apart from the army – the loss – comes to the fore precisely because of this, ”he said.
The 611-foot-long (186 m) Moskva, with a crew of about 500, is the pride of the Russian naval fleet in the Black Sea. Originally commissioned in the Soviet Navy in the 1980s as the Slav, according to the military site Naval-Technology.com, it was renamed Moskva in 1995 and after a refit re-enter service in 1998.
Moskva is armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as torpedoes and naval guns and close-in missile defense systems.
They all represent the enormous amount of explosive ordnance in its ammunition magazines. Schuster said that whatever fire they had, it would have given the crew limited options for dealing with the threat.
“When the fire reaches your ammunition magazine(s), you have two options; 1) Flood them or 2) Abandon the ship,” Schuster said. “Otherwise your crew would be wiped out by a catastrophic explosion followed by a fire reaching several hundred tons of ordnance.”
Odessa state regional administrator Maxim Marchenko claimed in a post on Telegram that the Ukrainian military had used Neptune cruise missiles to attack Moskva. Schuster said that if this is true, Moscow would potentially be the largest warship ever taken out of action by a missile.
Such an achievement would represent a major advance for Kyiv’s forces.
The Neptune is a Ukrainian weapon, developed domestically based on the Soviet KH-35 cruise missile. According to Ukrainian media reports, it became operational in the Ukrainian forces only last year.
If it is used to attack Moscow, it would be Neptune’s first known use during the war, according to a post on the website of Lieutenant Cmdr’s Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC). Jason Lancaster, a US Navy surface warfare officer.
His post for CIMSEC said on Tuesday that the threat posed by mobile noise-based cruise missiles like the Neptune “changes operational behavior” of an enemy.
Lancaster wrote, the Russians will “work on ways to minimize the ship’s detection risk and maximize the chances of defending itself.” “These behavioral changes limit Russia’s ability to use its fleet to its advantage. The added stress of sudden combat exacerbates fatigue and can lead to mistakes.”
According to Patalano, a professor of warfare: “It appears that the Russians today have learned the hard way.”
In the CIMSEC post, Lancaster noted that the British Royal Navy had lost several ships to missiles fired by Argentina during the Falklands War of 1982.
During that war, a British submarine sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, a pre-World War II US Navy ship similar in size to the Moscava.
According to Oleksiy Erestovich, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Moscow also holds symbolic significance for Ukraine as it was one of the ships involved in the famous exchange at Snake Island in February.
A Ukrainian soldier replied: “Russian battleship, go f*** yourself.”
If Moscow is lost, it would be the second major Russian naval vessel to suffer that fate during Moscow’s war with Ukraine.