New footage shows Russian warship Moskva before sinking

New photos and a short video clip surfaced on social media Monday morning showing Russia’s guided-missile vessel, the Moskva, badly damaged and ablaze in the hours before the ship sank in the Black Sea on Thursday.

The sinking of the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet was the biggest loss of a naval ship during the war in 40 years and a great embarrassment for Russia.

The images show the Moskva listed to one side, with black holes of possible missile puncture marks and significant damage at and just above the waterline on the port (left) side amidships.

A large plume of black smoke can be seen rising, partially obscuring the front of the wrecked ship.

Analysts speaking to sources confirmed that the warship in the images resembled the Moskva, a Slava-class guided-missile destroyer and the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Contradictory versions about the sinking of the Moskva

Ukraine and Russia have provided conflicting accounts of what happened during Thursday’s incident in the Black Sea.

Moscow has denied the Ukrainian version of events, that the Moskva sank after being hit by Ukrainian missiles, but admitted that the ship sank. Russia has insisted fire was the reason for the sinking, but the United States on Friday confirmed Ukraine’s account, and a senior defense official said the United States believes two Ukrainian Neptune missiles hit the Russian warship.

Carl Schuster, a retired US Navy captain and former director of operations for the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, told on Monday that the missiles were likely to penetrate under the ship’s bridge and detonate.

“Assuming the photo is not somehow faked or doctored, it looks like the missiles hit forward, which is not unexpected,” he said. “Anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) tend to target the center of the radar return, which is usually the forward section of the superstructure.”

Author and independent defense analyst HI Sutton told that the damage shown in the photos “does not rule out a missile attack, and remains the probable cause.”

“Possible puncture marks on the side of the hull are visible below where the fire is. But these would need further examination to confirm if they were caused by missiles or just fire damage,” he said.

The Moskva was armed with a range of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as torpedoes, naval guns, and missile defense systems, meaning it would have had large amounts of explosives on board.

No casualty report

The Russian military has not released any information on casualties aboard the Moskva.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a video on Saturday showing what was described as officers and sailors from the sunken warship standing in formation two rows deep. The number of sailors in training was unclear. It was unclear how many crew members were on board or how many survived.

Sutton says the footage shows all the liferafts have been deployed, “All the aft liferaft boats have been launched, although one remains on the aft deck. This suggests the crew has already abandoned ship at this time.” period,” he said. saying.

A large Russian rescue tug can be seen spraying the warship with water on the other side.

The Kremlin said on Monday that it had seen the Moskva photos but could not verify them. “Yes, we saw the pictures, but we can’t say how authentic and true they are,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

A senior US defense official who said he had also seen the photos and video of the burning ship told CNN on Monday that the United States “cannot independently verify those images.”

“But the images themselves are consistent with what we had assessed as the damage done to the ship,” the official said.

The authors of the images and video are unknown, but they were taken from a boat near the damaged warship. In the short video taken from the same point, an unseen person’s voice can be heard yelling in Russian, “Fuck (inaudible) what you did!”

Could affect Russian morale

The Moskva was one of Russia’s most visible assets in the Ukraine war and its loss could affect the morale of Russian troops.

Tellingly, the Russian government has failed to acknowledge casualties in the sinking of the ship, a stark contrast to the very public discussion of the Kursk submarine disaster, which claimed the lives of 118 sailors in 2000.

Analysts say the loss of the warship has hit hard at the Russian Navy’s heart and national pride, comparable to when the US Navy lost a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.

“Only the loss of a ballistic missile submarine or the Kutznetsov (Russia’s only aircraft carrier) would inflict a more serious blow to Russian morale and the Navy’s reputation among the Russian public,” Schuster said.