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RIGA, Latvia – The sinking of Russia’s warship Moscow has sparked tensions at home, with some families reporting sailors dead or missing, despite claims by the defense ministry that the entire crew has been evacuated.
The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet sank last week after being hit by two Ukrainian missiles, dealing a serious blow to Russia’s naval capacity, US and Ukrainian officials said.
Russia confirmed that the ship had sunk, but said only that it had been damaged by “strong storms” and a fire that caused an explosion of ammunition on board. On April 14, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that all crew members had been evacuated. Authorities have not confirmed any casualties.
But several families now contradict this statement in Russian media and social media reports. Social media groups uniting mothers of Russian soldiers currently stationed in Ukraine are filled with photos and requests from parents looking for their missing sons.
On Monday, at least four families shared photos of sailors the families say served on the sunken ship and have not been heard from since the incident.
“Please join our search for Moscow sailors!” Reads a message on the Vkontakte bulletin board. “Family members, please talk to your sons, maybe someone saw it [rest of the] boys at the time of the evacuation, were you either close to the cruiser itself or are you currently in hospital with them?
A sailor’s mother said her surviving son told her that about 40 people had died and many had been injured and disappeared in the sinking. Novaya Gazeta Evropa published on Sunday the remarks of an unnamed woman who said he had reviewed documents proving that the son had served in the navy, but no concrete evidence that he had been on board the Moscow when has sunk.
“There are dead, there are wounded, there are missing. My son called me when they were given phones. They left their documents and [their personal] phones on [ship]. Call me and cry from what I saw. It was scary. It is clear that not everyone has survived, “said the mother, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of her safety.
Russia’s News Agency reported that it had spoken to a family member who had confirmed Vitaly Begersky’s death aboard the Moscow. The Ministry of Defense announced the news to the family, the cousin of the sailor Anastasia Begerskaya told the media. Begersky was a recruiter from a small town off the Pacific coast of Russia, the agency reported.
The defense ministry released a video over the weekend that he said showed crew members of the ship. About 100 or more sailors are seen. It is not clear exactly how many were on board the ship at the time of the incident, but the size of the crew has varied over the years between 500 and 600 people, according to reports from the Russian State News Agency and the Ministry of Defense.
On Sunday, a user of the social media platform VKontakte said the ship’s commanders had told him that his son Egor, a serviceman, was among those missing in the tragedy. Earlier, Russia said the entire crew had been evacuated. It’s a lie! An outright and cynical lie! ” Dmitry Shkrebets wrote.
“After my attempts to clarify the details of the incident, the cruiser’s commander and his deputy stopped communicating with me,” Skrebets wrote. “I ask all those who are not afraid and not indifferent to spread this call of mine where you have the opportunity” so that the tragedy does not remain silent.
In a later post, Skrebets said three families from different parts of Russia had contacted him to say their children had also disappeared from the sunken ship.
Anna Siromyasova, another sailor’s stepmother, said 20-year-old Nikita had been missing for several days. The Siromyasovs said they also struggled to get information about their son’s whereabouts from the military.
“Siromyasov Nikita Alekseevich was on the ship” Moscow “on the night of April 13-14,” Siromyasova wrote on her social media page on Monday morning. “He is now on the missing list [ones]the parents are not told anything, they block our contacts. [We have] No information!”
Nikita’s father told The Washington Post that his son is also a recruit and the family has not yet heard anything about his fate: “Silence, they say nothing.”
A total of at least seven sailors have been identified by name and classified as missing, according to The Post’s calculations, based on local media reports and stories from family members. At least three others were reported killed.
Among those killed was 19-year-old Andrei Tsivov, whose mother told the Russian BBC that he was also a recruiter.
“[The military commissariat] said that it could not happen that the recruits were on this ship: “They are probably just located somewhere, do not worry, he is somewhere here, local, can not sail there [toward Ukraine]”, Says Julia Tsivova, quoted. She later told The Guardian that she had received a call from a military officer informing her that Andrei was dead.
Russia is recruiting suitable men between the ages of 18 and 27 for one year of military service. President Vladimir Putin and the country’s defense ministry have promised that recruits will not take part in Ukrainian hostilities. But in early March, after videos surfaced showing Ukrainian servicemen seized by Ukrainian forces, the Russian military acknowledged that some servicemen had been sent to Ukraine by mistake.
Russia’s loss to Moscow, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, has sparked a rare note of discontent from state television authorities, with a widely watched presenter saying he was “furious” at the sinking.
“Just explain to me how you managed to lose him!” Explain to me why the hell you were in this part of the Black Sea at that time, “Vladimir Solovyov asked during his prime-time broadcast over the weekend. “Why is your fire extinguishing system not working and the ship burning practically from the inside out?”
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