It took the Russian military more than a week to admit that one serviceman had died and two dozen others had disappeared after one of its flagship cruisers sank in the Black Sea, according to reports of a Ukrainian missile strike.
The confession came after families began desperately searching for their sons, who they said had served on the ship and had not returned home, and relatives were asking sharp questions about Russia’s initial statement that the entire crew had been evacuated.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a brief statement Friday that one crew member was killed and 27 were missing after a fire damaged Moscow’s flagship cruiser last week, while 396 others were evacuated. The ministry did not provide any explanation for its previous allegations that the entire crew disembarked before sinking.
The loss of Moscow, one of three missile cruisers of its kind in the Russian navy, has been shrouded in mystery since it was first announced early on April 14. Ukraine says it hit the ship with missiles. Russia’s Defense Ministry did not admit to the attack, saying only that the ship caught fire after blasting ammunition, causing serious damage.
There are no images of an alleged rescue operation
Moscow even insisted that the ship remained afloat and was towed to port, only to admit hours later that it had sunk in a storm. No images were provided of the ship or the alleged rescue operation.
Only a few days later, the Russian military released a short and mostly silent video showing a number of sailors, allegedly from Moscow, reporting to their command in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. The footage offers little clarity on how many sailors were actually evacuated to safety.
Soon the questions came. An emotional post on social media by Dmitry Shkrebets, alleging that his son, a cook in Moscow, had disappeared, quickly went viral.
The military “said the entire crew was evacuated. This is a lie! An outright and cynical lie!” Skrebets, a Crimean resident, wrote in VK, a popular Russian social media platform, on April 17, three days after the shipwreck.
?! My son, a conscript, as the commanders of the cruiser “Moscow” themselves told me, is not on the list of wounded and dead and has been added to the list of missing … Boys missing on the high seas ?!
Similar publications quickly followed from other parts of Russia. The Associated Press has found posts on social media looking for at least 13 other young men who are said to have served in Moscow, whose families cannot find them.
‘What are you doing?!’
A woman spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because she feared for her son’s safety. She said her son had been a recruiter and had been aboard the Moscow for several months before telling her in early February that the ship was about to leave for training. She lost touch with him a few weeks later.
The news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine worried her, she said, and she began reading the news online and on social media every day. The last time they spoke on the phone was in mid-March. He was on the ship, but did not say where he was.
She started looking for him only a day after learning about problems aboard the Moscow, as official statements from the Ministry of Defense said that the crew had been evacuated. But no one called or sent her a message about her son’s whereabouts, and she became excited.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, shown in Moscow earlier this week, suffered a serious political blow when Moscow sank, observers say. (Mikhail Tereshchenko / Satellite / Reuters)
Calls to various military personnel and hotlines did not lead to anything at first, but she persisted. The call she made on the way to a grocery store brought grim news – that her son had been declared missing and had little chance of surviving in the cold water.
“I said, ‘But you said you saved everyone,’ and he said, ‘I only have the lists.’ I shouted, “What are you doing ?!” she told the AP. “I was hysterical, right at the bus stop [where I was standing]. I had the feeling that the ground was receding beneath my feet. I began to tremble. “
The Kremlin’s statements about the loss of the ship and the fate of the crew follow a historical pattern in which Russia often encounters bad news with silence, denial or underestimation of the victims. Previous examples include the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea in 2000, and the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya.
The Kremlin will not comment
Families’ accounts cannot be verified independently. But they remained largely undisputed by the Russian authorities.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment and referred the matter to the Defense Ministry when asked by the AP during one of its daily conference calls with family reporters challenging official statements on the evacuation of sailors.
The defense ministry also did not comment on the protest – until Friday, when it finally revealed that 27 crew members had disappeared and one had been confirmed dead. However, the ministry has not yet acknowledged an attack on the ship.
Political analyst Abbas Galyamov says the sinking of Moscow is a serious political blow to President Vladimir Putin, not so much because of family protests but because it tarnishes Putin’s image of military power.
“This feature – maybe – is now under attack, because now we are talking about the destruction of the fleet,” said Galyamov. But the plight of the families underscores that “one should not trust the Russian authorities.”
Meanwhile, some families with missing sons plan to continue searching for the truth.
“We will now look at how long a person can” disappear “on the high seas,” Skrebets wrote on Friday.
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