A senior official in the US Department of Defense (Pentagon), said on Friday that the Russian cruiser “Moskva” was sunk by two Ukrainian missiles, stressing that it was a “severe blow” to Russia.
“We believe they hit it with two Neptune missiles,” the official, who asked not to be named, told a group of journalists.
Consequently, the US official denied Moscow’s account, which asserts that its main battleship in the Black Sea Fleet was “severely damaged” by a fire.
The official added that the United States believes that there are casualties among the Russian forces, but the numbers are not clear.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that the cruiser “Moskva”, which is considered the “most dangerous and most important” for Russia in the Black Sea, sank on Thursday evening.
Ukraine’s strike is considered a “pivotal” in the course of the Russian-Ukrainian war, as it is the strongest blow suffered by Russia since the start of the military operation weeks ago.
Pro-Ukrainian sources say that “Moskva” went out in an operation using drones, to jam the anti-missile defense systems.
Pro-Ukrainian pages on Twitter and YouTube circulated a video clip of the bombing of the cruiser “Moskva”, while the source of the video was not immediately confirmed by an independent source.
https://youtu.be/1i6MeOgLBx8