- A missile cruiser Moscow was damaged after an explosion of ammunition
- A Ukrainian official said the ship was hit by missiles
- Zelensky warns of new Russian offensives to avenge the defeats
- The fall of the industrial zone will give Russia control over the port
Kyiv / LVIV, Ukraine, April 14 (Reuters) – Russia said Thursday that its Black Sea Fleet’s flagship had been severely damaged and its crew evacuated following an explosion that a Ukrainian official said was the result of a missile strike.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has said that a fire on the missile cruiser “Moscow” caused an explosion of ammunition, Interfax news agency reported.
It is not said what caused the fire, but Maxim Marchenko, Ukraine’s governor of the Black Sea port of Odessa, said Moscow had been hit by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles.
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“The Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea have caused very serious damage,” he said in an online post.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment, and Reuters was unable to verify any of the parties’ allegations.
The Moscow is the second major ship known to have suffered severe damage since the start of the war. Last month, Ukraine said it had destroyed a landing support ship, Orsk, in the smaller Sea of Azov.
Russia’s navy has launched cruise missiles in Ukraine, and its activities in the Black Sea are crucial to supporting ground operations in the south, where it is struggling to gain full control of the port of Mariupol.
Russian news agencies reported that Moscow, commissioned in 1983, was armed with 16 Vulcan anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of at least 700 km (440 miles).
Russia has said 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, have surrendered to Mariupol and that the city is completely under its control. A spokesman for Ukraine’s defense ministry said there was no information about the surrender. Read more
The takeover of the Azovstal industrial area, where marines have been sheltered, will give Russia control of Ukraine’s main port in the Sea of Azov, strengthen the southern land corridor and expand its occupation to the east.
“Russian forces are stepping up their activities on the southern and eastern fronts, trying to avenge their defeats,” President Vladimir Zelensky said in a video message Wednesday night.
Reuters reporters accompanying the Russian-backed separatists saw flames rising from the Azovstal area on Tuesday, a day after Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade announced that its troops had run out of ammunition.
The United States said Wednesday it would send $ 800 million in additional military equipment to Ukraine, including artillery, armored personnel carriers and helicopters. France and Germany also promised more.
Senior US officials are considering sending a senior cabinet member such as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd to Kyiv in solidarity, a source familiar with the situation said.
Russia will consider US and NATO vehicles carrying weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate military targets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS.
It will impose sanctions on 398 members of the US House of Representatives and 87 Canadian senators, Interfax was quoted as saying by the Foreign Ministry after Washington attacked 328 members of Russia’s lower house of parliament.
Britain announced new financial measures against the separatists, and Australia imposed targeted financial sanctions on 14 Russian state-owned enterprises on Thursday. Read more
Fiji said it was investigating the arrival of the Amadea superyacht, owned by Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, which has been sanctioned by the United States, Britain and the European Union. Read more
“TO RELEASE US FROM WHAT?”
Ukraine claims tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in Mariupol, and accuses Russia of blocking convoys of aid for civilians left there.
Its mayor, Vadim Boychenko, said Russia had introduced mobile crematoria “to get rid of evidence of war crimes” – a statement that cannot be verified.
Moscow blamed Ukraine for the deaths of civilians and accused Kyiv of denigrating the Russian armed forces.
In the village of Lubyanka, northwest of Kyiv, where Russian forces tried and failed to conquer the capital before being expelled, a message was written to Ukrainians on the wall of a house occupied by Russian troops.
“We didn’t want that … forgive us,” it said.
The Kremlin says it has launched a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “liberate” Ukraine from nationalist extremists, a statement the villagers said was repeated by Russian troops.
“Free us from what? We are peaceful … We are Ukrainians,” said Lubyanka resident Viktor Shaposhnikov.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said during a visit to Kyiv with his Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian counterparts that those who committed and ordered crimes should be brought to justice.
The German president did not join them as he had planned. Zelenski denied information in the newspaper that he had rejected the visit because of Steinmeier’s recent good relations with Moscow. Read more
COMMENTS ON THE BIDEN GENOCIDE
The Kremlin has condemned President Joe Biden’s description of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine as genocide, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying it was unacceptable, coming from the leader of a country he said had committed its own crimes.
The initial report of a mission of experts set up by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe documents a “catalog of inhumanity” of Russian troops in Ukraine, according to the US ambassador to the OSCE.
“This includes evidence of direct attacks on civilians, attacks on medical facilities, rape, executions, robberies and the forced deportation of civilians to Russia,” said Michael Carpenter.
Russia has denied attacking civilians.
The Kyiv police chief said 720 bodies had been found in the area around the capital, where Russian forces had withdrawn, and more than 200 people were missing.
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Additional reports from Elizabeth Piper in Kyiv, Max Hunder in London, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Reuters bureaus; Writing by Costas Pitas and Stephen Coates; Edited by Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry
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