New Delhi: Ukraine claimed on Thursday that Russia's Black Sea fleet — Moskva — was destroyed by a Neptune missile strike. Russia evacuated its crew following an explosion on board, but refuted the claim and said a fire on the Moskva caused ammunition to blow up, reports said.
Moskva is a Soviet-era missile cruiser and its loss will be a big blow to Russia as it gets ready to attack Ukraine in the eastern Donbas region.
Maksym Marchenko, the governor of Ukraine's Odesa state, said (in a Telegram post) that the Moskva had been hit by two Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles. "Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage," he said in the online post, without giving any further detail about it.
Russia's defense ministry, however, refuted Ukraine's claim and said it was a fire on the Moskva that caused ammunition to blow up. Interfax agency reported that the Russian defence ministry said the explosion on Moskva caused due to an on-board incident.
In a statement, it said: "As the result of a fire on the Moskva missile cruiser, ammunition detonated."
Moskva is the same ship that was in news in the early days of the war when a Ukrainian soldier confronted a Russian fleet when it had asked his country to surrender. Moskva was commissioned in 1983, armed with 16 anti-ship cruise missiles.
Meanwhile, the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and Moscow has claimed that they have taken over the besieged city of Mariupol.
"Russian forces are increasing their activities on the southern and eastern fronts, attempting to avenge their defeats," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Wednesday night video address.