Posted by Jonny Hallam, Brad Lendon, Uliana Pavlova and Ivana Kottasová on Monday, April 18, 2022
Under: #EssexCounty
New photos and a short video clip emerged early Monday on social media showing Russia's guided-missile cruiser, the Moskva, badly damaged and on fire in the hours before the ship sunk in the Black Sea on Thursday.
The sinking of the Black Sea fleet flagship was the biggest wartime loss of a naval ship in 40 years -- and a huge embarrassment for Russia.
The images show the Moskva listing to one side, with black holes from possible missile puncture marks, and significant scarring at and just above the waterline on the port (left) side in the middle of the vessel.
A large plume of black smoke can be seen billowing upwards, partly obscuring the front of the stricken ship.
Analysts who spoke to CNN confirmed that the warship in the images looked like the Moskva, a Slava Class guided-missile destroyer and the flagship of Russian's Black Sea fleet.
Moscow has denied the Ukrainian version of events -- that the Moskva sunk after being struck by Ukrainian missiles -- but it admitted the ship went down. Russia has insisted the reason for the sinking was a fire, but the US on Friday confirmed Ukraine's account, with a senior defense official saying that the US believes that two Ukrainian Neptune missiles hit the Russian warship.