Ukraine says it hit Russian warship in Black Sea in missile strike

Russia said the crew of its Moskva warship were evacuated yesterday after an explosion of ammunition aboard that Ukraine said was caused by a missile strike, and a US defence official said the stricken vessel was still trying to put out a fire.The warship, Russia’s Black Sea fleet flagship, is still believed to be afloat and the United States is under the assumption that it is heading to Sevastopol, the senior US official said.“Our assessment is that she still appears to be battling a fire on board,” the official added.Russia’s defence ministry said the fire on the Soviet-era missile cruiser had been contained but left the ship badly damaged.It did not acknowledge the ship, which had more than 500 sailors aboard, had been attacked and said the cause of the fire was under investigation.Ukraine’s southern military command said it hit the warship with a Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile and that it had started to sink.Reuters was unable to verify any of the various statements.The United States said it did not have enough information to determine whether the ship was hit by a missile.“We don’t have the capacity at this point to independently verify that but certainly, the way this unfolded, it’s a big blow to Russia,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan.The Moskva’s loss or disabling would be a fresh hit to Russia’s stuttering campaign on the 50th day of the war as it readies for a new assault in the eastern Donbas region that is likely to define the conflict’s outcome.Commenting on Russia’s setbacks, US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns said the threat of Russia potentially using tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine cannot be taken lightly, but the CIA has not seen a lot of practical evidence reinforcing that concern.Russian forces have pulled back from some northern parts of Ukraine after suffering heavy losses and failing to take the capital Kyiv.Ukraine and its Western allies say Moscow is redeploying for a new offensive.“Russian forces are increasing their activities on the southern and eastern fronts, attempting to avenge their defeats,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Wednesday night video address.Russian aviation destroyed seven military facilities in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, including an artillery missile depot, Interfax quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.Russia’s navy has fired cruise missiles into Ukraine and its Black Sea activities are crucial to supporting land operations in the south of the country, where it is battling to seize full control of the port of Mariupol after weeks of bombardment.Russian media said the Moskva was armed with 16 anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of at least 700km (440 miles).Kyiv says the Moskva featured in one of the landmark early exchanges of the war, when Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island in the Black Sea told the ship to “Go (expletive) yourself” after it demanded they surrender.Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said Russia was massing troops not only along the Russia-Ukraine border, but also in Belarus and Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region.Moldova separately accused Russia’s army of trying to recruit Moldovans.Moscow’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Authorities in Transdniestria, bordering southern Ukraine, denied Russia was preparing forces there to threaten Ukraine.The Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions in the country’s east were being hit by missile strikes, Malyar said.Kharkiv’s governor said shelling killed four civilians.Russian officials meanwhile said that Ukrainian helicopters had hit residential buildings and injured seven people in the Bryansk region, the latest of a series of cross-border attacks that Moscow has said may trigger a retaliatory attack on Kyiv.The governor of the Belgorod region said a village there was also attacked, but that no one was wounded.Neither side’s statements could be independently verified and Ukraine’s military did not respond to requests for comment.Kyiv has however denied the accusation, saying that Russia was staging “terror attacks” on its own soil to spur “anti-Ukrainian hysteria”.The Kremlin says its “special military operation” seeks to demilitarise and “liberate” Ukraine from nationalist extremists.Andriy Nyebytov, head of the Kyiv region police, said that more than 800 bodies had been found in three districts which had been occupied by Russian forces.“We are finding terrible things: buried and hidden bodies of people who were tortured and shot, and who died as a result of mortar and artillery fire,” Nyebytov said in televised comments.His statements could not immediately be verified.Russia has denied attacking civilians and said some reports have been staged for propaganda purposes.Ukraine’s parliament backed a resolution yesterday recognising the actions of Russian forces as genocide – defined by the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention as crimes intended “to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part”.The Russian army’s actions “are not just a crime of aggression, but pursue the goal of the systematic and consistent destruction of the Ukrainian people,” read the text.