MOSCOW, Russia
Russia said on Thursday the flagship of its Black Sea fleet was seriously damaged and its crew evacuated following an explosion that a Ukrainian official said was the result of a missile strike.
Russia's defence ministry said
a fire on the Moskva missile cruiser caused ammunition to blow up, Interfax
news agency reported.
It did not say what caused the
fire but Maksym Marchenko, the Ukrainian governor of the region around the
Black Sea port of Odesa, said the Moskva had been hit by two Ukrainian-made
Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles.
"Neptune missiles
guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage," he said in an online
post.
Ukraine's defence ministry did
not respond to a request for comment and Reuters was unable to verify either
side's claims.
The Moskva is the second major
ship known to have suffered serious damage since the start of the war. Last
month Ukraine said it had destroyed a landing support ship, the Orsk, on the
smaller Sea of Azov.
Russia's navy has launched
cruise missiles into Ukraine and its activities in the Black Sea 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.
Russian news agencies said the
Moskva, commissioned in 1983, was armed with 16 anti-ship Vulkan cruise
missiles with a range of at least 700 km (440 miles).
Russia said 1,026 soldiers
from Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had surrendered in
Mariupol and that the city was fully under its control. Ukraine's defence ministry
spokesman said he had no information about a surrender. read
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Capturing the Azovstal
industrial district where the marines have been holed up would give Russia
control of Ukraine's main Sea of Azov port, reinforce a southern land corridor
and expand its occupation of the country's east.
"Russian forces are
increasing their activities on the southern and eastern fronts, attempting to
avenge their defeats," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Wednesday
night video address.
Reuters journalists
accompanying Russian-backed separatists saw flames billowing from the Azovstal
area on Tuesday, a day after Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade said its troops had
run out of ammunition.
The United States said on
Wednesday it would send an extra $800 million worth of military hardware to
Ukraine including artillery, armoured personnel carriers and helicopters.
France and Germany also pledged more.
Senior U.S. officials are
weighing whether to send a top cabinet member such as Secretary of State Antony
Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd to Kyiv in a show of solidarity, a
source familiar with the situation said.
Russia will view U.S. and NATO
vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate military
targets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime
Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed to
be opened on Thursday to evacuate civilians, including by private car from the
besieged city of Mariupol.
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