Sinking of the Moskva

"I saw every kid [young Russian conscripts assigned to the warship Moskva] who got burns. I can't describe how tough it was but I didn't find my child [among them, convalescing in hospital]."

"There were 200 people [at the hospital] while there were more than 500 people on the cruiser."

"Where's the rest of them?"

Irina Shkrebets, mother of Yegor Shkrebets, naval conscript

"We need answers, in writing, about where our children are, not text messages with photos and good wishes and prayers."

Father of Yegor Shkrebets, Russian naval conscript

 

"My son was crying when he called me to say what he saw."

"It was terrifying."

"Clearly not everyone made it out alive."

Unnamed Russian woman

"He's [Nikita Syrmyasova] on the missing list now. No one says anything to the parents."

"All our pleas are being stonewalled."

Anna Sromyasova

The warring sides have given conflicting accounts of what caused the sinking  Mike Right/Twitter

 

Under Russian law, conscripts are not permitted to be sent into war zones. That law appears to have been breached. Long suspected even at the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine when young conscripts called their mothers to tell them they were in Ukraine with the ground forces and hadn't expected to be sent to war. Their understanding was that they were dispatched to border sites to take part in training sessions. 

From ground troops illegally dispatched as conscripts insufficiently trained in combat, to naval command posts on warships, Moscow appears to have ignored all 'normal' rules of war. Reports have arisen that in Bucha, flechettes, deadly little projectiles, three centimetres in length, stuffed into Russian artillery shells to burst overhead had been fired. The premise being they would kill whoever they fell on; thousands of lethal miniature arrows primed to explode, shot into civilian enclaves.

Normal international laws governing warfare forbid the deliberate targeting of civilian structures, much less civilians themselves. Russian troops have been ordered to perform the illegitimate in institutionalized conflict; war crimes. The Ukraine military, despite fewer combatant numbers and far less equipment has been fighting back, repelling the aggressors, making an account for themselves as intrepid, intelligent defenders of their country, not supine victims.

The government of Ukraine has been using every means at their disposal to bring Western powers on line in their struggle to survive the Russian onslaught. Provided with military equipment, but not servicemen to aid in their fight against overwhelming numbers of Russian troops and equipment, the Ukrainian military is using what it has, to good effect. Thwarting Vladimir Putin's orders to his military at every step along the way. They have shelled and destroyed armoured troop carriers, tanks and warplanes.

And finally, the pride of Russia's naval armada, the ship that was to have led a naval assault along the Ukraine seacoast. Two U.S.-produced Neptune missiles were shot by Ukraine as direct hits to Russia's Black Sea fleet's premier vessel, the 40-year-old pride of Russia's fleet, equipped with modern technology; an offshore threat to Ukraine in plans to launch a wholesale invasion by land, air and sea.

 

The missiles' aim disabled the ship, set munitions on board on fire, forced the evacuation of its 520-member crew, and finally sank the vessel, a total, irreplaceable short-order loss in the Kremlin's plans to dominate on the battlefield's every front to completely destroy Ukraine. Moscow denied there were any casualties from among the crew of the Moskva. And nor was it hit by missiles; rather a spontaneous eruption of explosions from onboard stored ammunition, and dangerously stormy conditions sank the impaired vessel.

But the flagship warship that sank in the Black Sea was hit and destroyed by two missiles fired by Ukraine. And now, though according to the official line there were no casualties aboard ship -- the evacuation went smoothly and everyone aboard was accounted for -- parents are stepping forward to demand answers. Answers that would inform them where their missing sons are. Answers to why it might be that young men barely out of their teens were sent to a war zone after involuntary entry to the conflict.

Some were informed their sons were 'missing in action' and no details or explanations were forthcoming. Video footage the military released showed the crew of the ship back at home base. The full complement of 500+ appeared not to be present, much less accounted for.  Irina Shkrebets and her husband went to a hospital in Crimea, looking for their son. Among the 200 crew members in the hospital, no sight of their son.

The Kremlin had admitted that some conscripts had been sent on to Ukraine, through the commission of an error in deployment. Desperate parents took to social media hoping to find information about their sons' whereabouts. Many had heard from their sons from the Moskva before it was sunk, and that was the last they heard from their sons.

Photographs have emerged of the sinking Moskva, taken from another ship nearby, showing the huge vessel listing, black plumes of smoke rising over the stern and hoses spraying water into the air. Lifeboats deployed but no personnel seen on the ship's deck.

"You will always see a team, normally on the flight deck -- in this case, the flight deck would be a good place to gather your equipment and firefighting teams."

"You want to set up safe zones and that's where you put all your firefighting equipment and all your people, they're in fresh air."

"But there's nobody, literally nobody there and if there is no one, there is almost no chance of anyone being alive below deck."

"It also suggests that everyone is off that ship. [The ship was too soon abandoned.]"

Tom Sharpe, retired commander, U.K. Royal Navy