In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians late Thursday that they should be proud to have survived 50 days under Russian attack when the invaders “gave us a maximum of five.”
Friendly world leaders at the time also urged them to leave, unsure whether Ukraine could survive, adding: “But they did not know how brave Ukrainians are, how much we value freedom and the way From what we want the possibility of living.”
Listing the ways Ukraine defended against attack, Zelensky said, “the ones that showed Russian warships could go away, even when it was under sea”.
it was his only reference guided-missile cruiser Moskva, named after the Russian capital, which became a powerful target of Ukrainian defiance in the early days of the war. It sank while being taken to port on Thursday after suffering heavy damage under the circumstances in the dispute.
Ukrainian officials said their forces fired missiles at the ship, while Moscow admitted that there was fire on board but no attack. US and other Western officials could not confirm what caused the fire. In any case, the loss was a symbolic defeat for Russia as its troops regrouped for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital Kyiv.
Moskva had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. It is a blow to Moscow’s reputation in a war already widely seen as a historical blunder. Now entering its eighth week, the offensive has come to a halt amid resistance from Ukrainian fighters strengthened by Western weapons and other aid.
During the first days of the war, Moskva was reportedly the ship that called on Ukrainian troops stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in a standoff. In a widely circulated recording, one soldier replied: “Russian battleship, go yourself (leave).
The Associated Press could not independently confirm the incident, but Ukraine and its supporters consider it an iconic moment of defiance. The country recently unveiled a postage stamp in its memory.
News about the flagship overshadowed Russian claims of advances in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Moscow’s forces have been battling Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the heaviest fighting of the war – at a terrible cost to civilians.
A dwindling number of Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol are against a siege that has trapped more than 100,000 civilians in dire need of food, water and heating. David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, told the AP in an interview on Thursday that people were being “starved to death” in the besieged city.
Mariupol’s mayor said this week that more than 10,000 civilians had been killed and the death toll could surpass 20,000, after weeks of attacks and privatizations lay in the streets.
The capture of Mariupol is significant for Russia as it would allow its forces in the south, which came through the Crimean peninsula, to fully engage with troops in the Donbass region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland and target of an impending invasion. Was.
According to a senior US defense official, the Russian military continues to move together helicopters and other equipment for such an effort, and is likely to add more ground combat units soon. But it is still unclear when Russia might launch a major offensive in the Donbass.
Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine in the Donbass since 2014, the same year Russia annexed Crimea. Russia has recognized the independence of the rebel areas in the Donbass.
The loss of Moskva could delay any new, widespread invasion.
Odessa Region Governor Maxim Marchenko said Ukrainian forces attacked the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused “severe damage”.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the fire caused the ammunition on board to explode, without explaining what caused the fire. It stated that the “main missile armament” was not damaged and the crew, usually numbering around 500, abandoned the ship. It was not clear whether there were any casualties. In addition to cruise missiles, the battleship also had air-defense missiles and other guns.
The Neptune is an anti-ship missile recently developed by Ukraine based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks located near the coast, and can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 mi) away, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Where it was at the time of the fire would have kept Moscow within range.
Launched in 1979 as the Slav, the cruiser saw service in the Cold War and during conflicts in Georgia and Syria, and helped conduct peacetime scientific research with the United States. During the Cold War, it carried nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, other Russian ships in the northern Black Sea headed south after the Moscow incident, said a senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military assessments.
While the US was not able to confirm Ukraine’s claims of an attack on the warship, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called it “a major blow to Russia”.
“They had to choose between two stories: one story is that it was just incompetence, and the other that they came under attack, and neither is a particularly good outcome for them,” Sullivan told the Economic Club of Washington. told .
Russia invaded on 24 February and potentially lost thousands of fighters. The conflict has killed countless Ukrainian civilians and forced millions to flee.
This has further pushed up prices at grocery stores and gasoline pumps, dragging down the global economy. The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that the war had helped the organization downgrade economic forecasts for 143 countries.
Also on Thursday, Russian officials accused Ukraine of sending two low-flying military helicopters about 11 kilometers (7 miles) across the border and firing at residential buildings in the village of Klimovo in Russia’s Bryansk region. Russia’s investigative committee said seven people, including a child, were injured.
Russia’s State Security Service said earlier that Ukrainian forces fired mortar shells at a border post in Bryansk when refugees were crossing, forcing them to flee.
The reports could not be independently verified.