Ukraine’s Defense Minister has conducted a covert investigation into the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva, believed to be carrying 500 sailors.
Ukraine’s defense minister mocked Russia for the sinking of its battleship Moskva, believed to have had 500 sailors on board.
Ukraine claimed to have destroyed the warship, which Moscow intercepted, instead saying it sank while trying to tow it to the nearest port after a fire broke out aboard the 186-meter vessel.
The ship has played a major role in the war thus far, and recently drew global attention when Ukrainian forces reported “f**k off” to its crew on Snake Island during the early days of the invasion.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov tweeted Friday that the sunken ship is now a “worthy diving site” he’s looking forward to visiting when the war is over.
“We have another diving spot in the Black Sea now,” he wrote.
He will surely visit the wreck after our victory in the war. BTW, I already have 300 dives. “
The Moskva missile cruiser was leading the Russian naval effort in the seven-week conflict, and the circumstances surrounding its sinking and the fate of its crew remain a mystery.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the explosion on the ship was the result of an explosion of ammunition and that the damage caused by it caused it to “lose its balance” as it was towed into port.
The fleet is besieging the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, which Russian officials say they have in full control of.
Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in part due to deepening ties between Kyiv and NATO, warned Friday of unspecified “consequences” should Finland and Sweden join the US-led defense alliance.
The two countries are considering joining NATO after Russia’s devastating invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
“The choice is up to the authorities of Sweden and Finland,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
“But they should understand the consequences of such a step for our bilateral relations and the architecture of European security as a whole,” she said.
“They will automatically find themselves on the NATO front line,” Zakharova said. Russian forces last month began withdrawing from the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital as they redeployed to focus on territory in the country’s east, but the city remains vulnerable to missile strikes.
“The number and size of missile strikes against targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist attacks or sabotage perpetrated by the Kyiv nationalist regime on Russian soil,” the Defense Ministry said.
“As a result of the attack on the Zhulyansky Machine-Building Plant“ Vizar ”, the workshops for the production and repair of long-range and medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems were destroyed, as well as anti-ship missiles.
Capturing the eastern Donbass region, where Russian-backed separatists control the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, would allow Moscow to create a southern corridor into occupied Crimea.
Ukraine said Russian strikes killed five people in the area, after President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow’s forces aimed to “destroy” the region.
Originally Posted as Ukraine trolling Putin: I can’t wait to dive into the site of a sunken Russian warship