Russian flagship sinks while being towed to Crimea port

The loss of the ‘Moskva' is a huge military defeat for Russia

- TOM BATCHELOR

 The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet sunk yesterday while it was being towed back to port in Sevastopol, Crimea. Official Russian media said the Moskva went under during bad weather The crew had been evacuated after the vessel suffered serious damage following a suspected missile strike claimed by the Ukrainians, in the latest blow to Vladimir Putin's war effort.

Some 500 sailors were on board the Moskva when it suffered what the Kremlin described as a fire and explosion of ammunition.

However, Ukraine's southern military command said it hit the warship with a Neptune anti-ship missile. The loss of the ship is a huge military and symbolic defeat for Mr Putin. However, neither statement by the two sides about the incident has been independently verified.

Nevertheless, yesterday, western officials said that Ukraine's claim of a missile strike appeared “credible” and described Moscow's version of events as “difficult to believe”.

Armed with S-300F Rif missiles, Moskva was an important component of Russia's air defence over southern Ukraine. It also featured in one of the landmark early exchanges of the war, when Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island, a small outcrop in the Black Sea, told the ship to “Go fuck yourself” after it demanded they surrender.

Later yesterday - the 50th day of the invasion - US national security adviser Jake Sullivan described the incident as a “big blow to Russia”, while Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia would seek to “avenge their defeats”.