Ukrainian side “Sunk with two Neptune missiles”, expert “Russian army landed on the coast and hit the supply route”
CNN: Putin attacked in retaliation for hurting his pride
On the 16th (local time), Russian troops attacked eight key cities in Ukraine, including the capital Kii. According to CNN and others, it was retaliation for President Vladimir Putin, who suffered a huge loss of power and serious damage to his self-esteem when the missile cruiser Moscow, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet and a symbol of the Russian Navy, sank.
The reasons for the sinking of the Moscow ship are divided. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that an unknown explosion and fire broke out in the ammunition depot of the Moscow warship, as well as a storm that caused it to lose balance and sank. Ukraine countered that it sank with two Neptune anti-ship missiles. The Washington Post reported on the 16th that a U.S. Pentagon official also said that “a Ukrainian missile hit.”
The reason the two sides even quarreled over a sunken warship is that the Moscow ship is a symbol of the Russian Navy. The Slava-class missile cruiser Moscow, commissioned in 1983, is 187 meters long, 21 meters wide, and weighs 12,490 tons and can carry 510 people. It is called a ‘fortress on the sea’ because it can carry the aircraft carrier strike missile ‘Vulkan’ with a range of 700 km, the sea-specialized surface-to-air missile grumble, the AK-630M gun that fires 10,000 rounds per minute, and nuclear missiles. There are also rumors that she was carrying nuclear missiles at the time of her sinking. She is the commander of the Black Sea Fleet of more than 30 warships and one of the most powerful long-range defenses, she has served in the invasion of Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the civil war in Syria in 2015. She is considered to be capable of neutralizing the entire Ukrainian navy with a single Moscow ship.
Military experts believe that the sinking of the Moscow destroyer took a toll on the Russian army’s coastal landing, rear defense, and securing of supply routes. In addition, the southern port city of Odessa was freed from the range of the Russian fleet and the movement of Ukrainian troops stationed in Odessa was free. The American think tank Institute for Warfare (ISW) said, “After the sinking of the Moscow warship, Russian ships moved 150 km from the coast.”
The Times reported that “a sinking of this magnitude is the first since the Argentine cruiser Belgrano was sunk by a British navy torpedo in 1982 in the Falklands War,” it said. Some say it is “an incident similar to the loss of an aircraft carrier by the US Navy” (CNN), and “if it was an accident, it is an example of the incompetence of the Russian military” (The New York Times).
The ‘Neptune’ missile, known to have sunk the Moscow warship, was first introduced by the Ukrainian military in 2015 by modifying a Soviet-made missile. As if conscious of this, the Russian army, which attacked Kiiu, northern Kharkiv, and western Lviv, on the 16th, concentrated airstrikes on the Bijar factory on the outskirts of the southwestern part of Kiiu, which produces Neptune missiles.
Russian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Igor Konashenkov said on the same day that 23,367 Ukrainian soldiers were killed. He also said that he had “taken control of the entire southern port city of Mariupol,” and said, “Submit by 6 a.m. on the 17th.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared that negotiations with Russia will “immediately” if the Ukrainian forces are eliminated in Mariupol.
Paris = Correspondent Yunjong Kim [email protected]
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