The Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, was attacked and sunk by Ukrainian forces on 14 April 2022 during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Ukrainian officials announced that their forces had hit and damaged it with two R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles, and that the ship had then caught fire. The United States Department of Defense later confirmed this, and Russia reported that the ship had sunk in stormy seas after the fire reached ammunition on board that exploded.
The cruiser is the largest Russian warship to be sunk in wartime since the end of World War II, and the second Russian flagship sunk after Knyaz Suvorov in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War.
Russia said that 396 crew members had been evacuated, with one sailor killed and 27 missing, but there are unverified reports of more casualties. At least 17 of the missing crew members were later declared dead by a court in Sevastopol.
Background
In February 2022, the Moskva left the Port of Sevastopol to participate in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ship was later used against the Ukrainian armed forces during the attack on Snake Island, together with the Russian patrol boat Vasily Bykov. Moskva hailed the island's garrison over the radio and demanded its surrender, receiving the now-famous reply "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" from its garrison. After this, contact was lost with Snake Island, and the thirteen-member Ukrainian garrison surrendered. The ship continued to be deployed in the Black Sea until its sinking in April 2022.
Sinking
Ukrainian account
The first known report of a missile hitting the ship was at 20:42, 13 April 2022, Ukrainian time (EEST, UTC+03:00) with a Facebook post by a Ukrainian volunteer connected to the military: "The cruiser Moskva has just been hit by 2 Neptune missiles. It is standing [not sunk], burning. And there is a storm at sea. Tactical flooding is required, apparently." Later that evening presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych reported Moskva was on fire in rough seas and Odesa governor Maksym Marchenko officially confirmed that Ukrainian forces hit Moskva with two R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles, which "caused very serious damage." At 12:43, 14 April EEST, the Ukrainian Southern Command posted a video on Facebook with a report stating the ship had received damage within the range of the Neptune anti-ship missile and that there was a fire on board. The video also claimed that other vessels in Moskva's group "tried to help, but a storm and a powerful explosion of ammunition overturned the cruiser, and it began to sink."
Russian account
Hours after Marchenko's claim, the Russian Ministry of Defence said that a fire had caused ammunition to explode and that the ship had been seriously damaged, without any statement of cause or reference to a Ukrainian strike. The ministry said on 14 April that the missile systems of the cruiser were undamaged, the fire had been contained by sailors, and that efforts were underway to tow the ship to port. Later on 14 April, the Russian ministry said that Moskva had sunk while being towed during stormy weather. On 15 April, the sinking was briefly reported on Russian news media and television, where it was said to have been due to "stormy seas."
Other early observations
The United States Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby said early on 14 April that they did not have enough information to confirm a missile strike, but could not rule it out. Imagery they had examined showed the ship had suffered a sizable explosion. The cause of the explosion was not clear. The ship appeared to be moving under its own power, probably heading to Sevastopol for repairs. A defense department spokesman later stated it was unclear whether the vessel was moving under her own power or being towed. A senior Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated the ship was "battling a fire on board, but we do not know the extent of the damage,” but it was "big" and "extensive."
An image from a satellite with cloud-penetrating synthetic aperture radar (SAR) revealed that at 18:52 local time (UTC+03:00) on 13 April 2022, Moskva was located at 45°10′43.39″N 30°55′30.54″E / 45.1787194°N 30.9251500°E, about 80 nautical miles (150 km) south of Odesa, east of Snake Island, and around 50 nmi (90 km) from the Ukrainian coast. An analysis suggested this was not long after the damage occurred, which caused the ship to eventually sink. In the image, the cruiser is accompanied by other vessels.
At 02:59, 14 April 2022 [EEST], the Telegram channel Reverse Side of the Medal, associated with the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, posted the following: "According to unconfirmed reports," the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, sank. The group added that, according to their "preliminary information," [the ship] was indeed attacked by the Neptune anti-ship missiles from the coastline between Odesa and Nikolaev. The channel reported that "the forces of the ship were diverted to counter the Bayraktar TB-2 UAV. The blow fell on the port side, as a result of which the ship took a strong roll. After the threat of detonation of ammunition, the crew of about 500 people was evacuated."
At 10:59, 14 April 2022 [EEST], the Lithuanian defence minister, Arvydas Anušauskas, reported on Facebook that an SOS signal was sent at 01:05, the cruiser rolled onto its side at 01:14, and the electricity went out half an hour later. "From 2 a.m., a Turkish ship evacuated 54 sailors from the cruiser, and at about 3 a.m., Turkey and Romania reported that the ship was completely sunk." According to the Albanian website Politiko, a Turkish official denied to BBC News that a Turkish ship rescued any Russian crew.
In the afternoon of 14 April, US Defense Department spokesman Kirby confirmed the ship had sunk but said they were unable to confirm what caused the ship to sink, although the Ukrainian account was "certainly plausible." Speculating about the cause of the explosion, he stated: "Certainly, it could have been damage from some external force, like a missile or an attack of some kind, a torpedo, or something like that... but it could also be something that happens inside the skin of the ship –an engineering fire, a fuel fire. You just don't know."
Missile strike
On 15 April, a senior US defense official said that Moskva had been hit by two Neptune missiles; he also stated that the ship was about 65 nmi (120 km) south of Odesa when she was struck and that the cruiser continued onward under her own power before sinking on 14 April. The official also said intelligence appraisals indicated there were casualties at the time of the strike, but he did not know how many. The Ukrainian missiles were apparently fired from a land-based launcher near Odesa while Moskva was located 60–65 nautical miles (110–120 kilometres) offshore.
On 5 May, a US official said that the US gave "a range of intelligence" to assist in the sinking of the Moskva. However, the decision to strike was purely a Ukrainian one. There was a US Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft in the area before the sinking. The P-8A from Italy was patrolling within its radar range over the Black Sea and the US, when asked, did identify the ship as the Moskva as part of intelligence sharing to help Ukraine defend against attacks from Russian ships. The US Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby stated: "There was no provision of targeting information by any United States Navy P-8 flying in these air policing missions."
The Moskva was equipped with a triple-tiered air defence that could have provided an adequate chance of intercepting the incoming Neptune missiles, with 3–4 minutes of radar detection warning. There was no record that the crew had activated these systems, including the S-300F and 9K33 Osa surface-to-air missiles, chaff or decoys, electronic jamming, or the last-ditch AK-630 close-in weapon systems. Tayfun Ozberk, a Turkey correspondent for Defense News, suggested that the ship's radars either failed to detect the incoming Neptune missiles or that the defenses were not ready to engage the detected threat, implying a lack of crew training for such emergency scenarios.
The operation to sink Moskva may have been assisted by the use of at least one Bayraktar TB2 drone (UCAV), which seems to have observed the event and may have played other roles in the ship's sinking. The Telegram post by the Wagner Group and a Ukrainian official said the drone "diverted" or "distracted" the crew, but David Hambling, a technology journalist writing in Forbes, considered this unlikely, since the ship's anti-drone and anti-missile defenses were provided by two different systems: the long-range SA-N-6 Grumble (S-300F) missiles against the drone and the multibarreled AK-630 cannons against the Neptune missiles.
Several reports were consistent with Bayraktar drones being in the same area as the ship. Arda Mevlutoglu, a defence industry analyst, stated that a Bayraktar TB2 ground-control station was seen in Odesa on 10 April. A video released by the Russian military on 12 April showed a missile being launched from the Russian frigate Admiral Essen and stated it destroyed a Bayraktar drone near the Crimean coast. A Ukrainian video "shot from the air with a night vision scope," claimed to show Moskva burning in the distance, and could have been made by a Bayraktar drone flying in the area.
Analysts stated the Bayraktar drone may have also provided targeting information. Can Kasapoglu, the director of security and defence studies at the Turkish think tank Center for the Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), said: "Reports that Turkish TB2 drones were involved in the attack either as a distraction for Moskva or as location spotters of Moskva are both quite possible." Mevlutoglu mentioned that Rear Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, commander of the Ukrainian naval forces, had in the past suggested that TB2 drones would be used with Neptune launchers for target reconnaissance. Mevlutoglu also said the main radar system on Moskva was out of date, designed to detect aircraft and cruise missiles. The TB2, with a lower radar cross-section and flight speed, may have been missed by the ship's radar.
The aviation journalist Valius Venckunas reported: "According to Arkady Babchenko, a Russian military journalist and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, a Ukrainian Bayraktar disabled Moskva's radar station, rendering it unable to detect and intercept incoming missiles. However, Babchenko has not provided the source of such information."
Danish military analyst Anders Puck Nielsen suggested that operator fatigue could have been a significant factor: Russian ships rely on rather old-fashioned systems that work well, but require operators who are alert and responsive. With defensive systems active, the cruiser would be expected to survive several strikes from Neptune missiles with their 150 kg or 320 lb warheads due to its large displacement. One salvo combat model scenario suggests that at least eleven Neptune missiles would have needed to attack simultaneously; Moskva could have defeated six of them, with the remaining five getting through its defences and causing just enough hull damage to sink it. However, this assumes good damage control to prevent ship munitions from being detonated; the use of conscripts instead of mid-grade professionals and insufficient compartmentation have been suggested as contributing to the cruiser's sinking.
Images and video of the sinking ship
By 18 April 2022, two images and a short 3-second video clip were circulating on social media showing Moskva before sinking after the fire broke out. The images show the ship listing to port in daylight and calm seas, with signs of extensive fire damage around the central superstructure and holes at the waterline, and most of her life rafts missing, indicating that some of the crew had evacuated. According to CNN, "a large Russian rescue tug can be seen dousing the warship with water on the far [starboard] side."
The source or author of the video or images is unknown. The Telegraph reported the images were first posted to the web via the Telegram messaging service on a channel linked to Russian security agencies. Analysts who were independently consulted by The Guardian and CNN confirmed that the images appear to show Moskva. The Guardian quoted Yörük Işık, a journalist and expert ship spotter, as saying: "I believe the video is real. What we see shape, size. It is the Moskva." The Guardian also reported: "He [Işık] said he believed at least one of the photographs was taken from a Project 22870 rescue tugship, of which Russia is believed to have two in the Black Sea."