Adam Shrek, Associated Press Posted Friday, April 15, 2022, 6:38 AM EDT Last Updated on Friday, April 15, 2022 6:38 AM EDT
Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – A day after Moscow suffered a severe symbolic defeat with the loss of its Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, Russia’s defense ministry vowed on Friday to step up rocket attacks on the Ukrainian capital in response to Ukraine’s alleged Russian military “deviations”. territory “.
The threat of intensified attacks on Kyiv came after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of carrying out air strikes on apartment buildings in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine, injuring seven people. Authorities in another Russian border region also announced Ukrainian shelling on Thursday.
Life in Kyiv is gradually returning to normal after Russia failed to seize the capital and withdraw its troops to northern Ukraine to focus on a concentrated attack in the east. The renewed bombing could return the city’s residents to shelter in subway stations and the steady howls of air raid sirens.
The Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that any targets have been struck in Russia, and the reports of the Russian authorities cannot be verified independently. However, Ukrainian authorities say their forces fired missiles at a key Russian warship on Thursday. If true, the statement will be an important victory.
The cruise missile cruiser “Moscow”, named after the Russian capital, sank while being towed to the port after suffering severe damage in circumstances that remain controversial. Moscow acknowledged the fire on board, but not the attack. US and other Western officials could not confirm what caused the fire.
Moscow had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. The loss of the warship in an invasion already considered a historic mistake was also a symbolic defeat for Moscow, as its troops regrouped for the offensive in eastern Ukraine after withdrawing from much of the north.
In the first days of the war, the Moscow crew reportedly called on Ukrainian troops stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in opposition. A widespread recording includes a Ukrainian soldier who replied: “Russian warship, go (swear) alone.”
The Associated Press could not independently investigate the Snake Island incident, but Ukraine and its supporters see it as an iconic moment of disobedience. The country recently unveiled a postage stamp in honor of this.
If Ukraine strikes Moscow with missiles, the cruiser is probably the largest warship sunk in a battle since the Falklands War in 1982, in which a cruiser of similar size, called the ARA General Belgrano, was torpedoed by a British submarine, killing more than 300 sailors on board. .
In a speech Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians they should be proud to have survived 50 days under Russian attack when the invaders “gave us a maximum of five”.
Enumerating the ways in which Ukraine has defended itself against pressure, Zelensky mentioned “those who have shown that Russian warships can sail, even if they are to the bottom” at sea. This was his only mention of Moscow.
News of the flagship overshadowed Russian claims of progress in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Moscow forces have been fighting Ukrainians since the first days of the invasion of some of the war’s worst battles – at a terrifying cost to civilians.
The dwindling number of Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol is opposing a siege that has trapped more than 100,000 civilians in desperate need of food, water and heating. David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Program, said in an interview with the AP on Thursday that people were “starving to death” in the besieged city.
The mayor of Mariupol said this week that more than 10,000 civilians had died and the death toll could exceed 20,000.
The capture of Mariupol is crucial for Russia because it will allow its forces in the south, which emerged through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to fully connect with troops in the Donbass region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial center and the target of the impending offensive.
The Russian military continues to move helicopters and other equipment to the site for such efforts, according to a senior U.S. defense official, and is likely to add more ground combat units soon. But it is still unclear when Russia can launch a full-scale campaign in Donbass.
Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine in the region since 2014, the same year that Russia took over Crimea. Russia has recognized the independence of the rebel regions in Donbass.
Maxim Marchenko, governor of the Odessa region, said Ukrainian forces had hit Moscow with two Neptune rockets and caused “serious damage”.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the ammunition on board was detonated as a result of the fire, without saying what caused the fire. It says the “main missile weapons” have not been damaged and that the crew, usually numbering about 500, has left the ship. It was not clear if there were any casualties. In addition to cruise missiles, the warship had anti-aircraft missiles and other guns.
Neptune is an anti-ship rocket that was recently developed by Ukraine based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks near the coast and, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away. That would put Moscow in range, based on where the ship was when the fire broke out.
Launched as Glory in 1979, the cruiser served during the Cold War and during the conflicts in Georgia and Syria and helped conduct research in peacetime with the United States. He carried nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
British defense officials said the loss of Moscow was likely to force Moscow to change the way the navy operates in the Black Sea. In a social media post Friday, the UK Department of Defense said the ship, which returned to operational service last year after a major overhaul, “played a key role as both a command ship and an air defense hub”.
The sinking means that Russia has already suffered damage to two key naval assets since the invasion of Ukraine, the first being the Russian Alligator-class landing ship Saratov on March 24. “Both events are likely to force Russia to reconsider its maritime position in the Black Sea,” the British ministry said.
On Thursday, other Russian ships in the northern Black Sea moved further south after the Moscow incident, a senior U.S. defense official said on condition of anonymity to discuss domestic military assessments.
Although the United States has failed to confirm Ukraine’s allegations of a strike on the warship, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called it a “big blow to Russia.”
“They had to choose between two stories: one was that it was just incompetence, and the other was that they were attacked, and neither of them was a very good result for them,” Sullivan told the Washington Economic Club.
Russia invaded on February 24 and potentially lost thousands of fighters. The conflict killed huge numbers of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee.
It has also further raised prices in grocery stores and petrol stations, while dragging on the global economy. The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that the war had helped the organization lower economic forecasts for 143 countries.
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Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.
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