War in Ukraine: The Moskva cruiser sinks, the Pentagon hails a “hard blow” for the Russian army – 20 Minutes

A “hard blow” as strategic as it is symbolic. On Thursday, the cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, sank. “This will have consequences for their combat capabilities, because the ship was a” key element of their efforts to establish naval dominance in the Black Sea, “said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on CNN. “I don’t even know when a ship of this size sank for the last time during a military confrontation,” he added, adding that he was unable to confirm the origin of the fire. aboard the Moskva. “I’m sure it happened since the Second World War, but I don’t remember it,” he concluded. The 186-meter-long missile ship had been “severely damaged” by a fire that caused munitions to explode and its crew of more than 500 had to be evacuated. The Ukrainian governor of the Odessa region, Maxime Marchenko, said for his part that the Ukrainian armed forces had struck the Moskva with Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles, inflicting “significant damage”.