Atlanta, United States of America (CNN) – Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed to CNN that an “explosion” occurred on the Russian ship, Moskva, Thursday, but indicated that the United States might not determine whether the explosion was caused by a missile attack on it. .
“We’re not sure what happened there,” Kirby told CNN. “We have an assessment that there was an explosion, at least one on board, a relatively strong explosion that caused massive damage to the ship,” he said.
Russia said the ship was still floating in the Black Sea despite a fire that exploded, while the Ukrainians say they targeted it with anti-ship missiles.
The US official added, “Our assessment indicates that the ship is still able to make its way, and it is already doing so and is heading east, we believe. We believe that it will dock at the port of Sevastopol for repair work, but we do not know the exact cause of the fire,” he said.
Kirby confirmed that the Russian ship was sailing with others at a distance of 60 km from the coast of the city of Odessa, in southern Ukraine.