Experts and analysts are now warning that the warship may have been carrying two nuclear warheads
Russia's Black Sea flagship which sank yesterday after an explosion on board may have been carrying nuclear warheads, analysts and experts have warned today, as a Russian politician said more than 400 sailors could have gone down with the ship.
The Moskva, a Soviet-era guided missile cruiser, sank near the port of Sevastopol on Thursday after Ukraine said it hit the ship with two cruise missiles. Today, Mykhailo Samus, director of a Lviv-based military think-tank; Andriy Klymenko, editor of Black Sea News; and Ukrainian newspaper Defence Express all warned that the Moskva could have been carrying two nuclear warheads designed to be fitted to its P-1000 'carrier killer' missiles.
If true, the loss of the warheads into the Black Sea could spark a 'Broken Arrow' incident - American military slang for potentially lethal accidents involving nuclear weapons.
'On board the Moskva could be nuclear warheads - two units,' Samus said, while Klymenko called on other Black Sea nations - Turkey, Romania, Georgia, and Bulgaria - to insist on an explanation. 'Where are these warheads? Where were they when the ammunition exploded,' he asked.
Meanwhile Ilya Ponomarev, a politician exiled from Russia for opposing Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea, said just 58 of the 510-strong crew have since been accounted for - raising the prospect that 452 men went down with the ship in what would be a bitter loss for Vladimir Putin's already beleaguered army.
The figure, while unconfirmed, is consistent with losses suffered on exploding warships. During the Russian Navy's infamous defeat at the Battle of Tsushima against Japan, an explosion on board the Borodino - slightly smaller than the Moskva - saw all-but one of her 855 crew killed.
Russia claims all the Moskva's sailors were 'successfully evacuated' but video taken in Sevastopol overnight shows dozens of cars purportedly belonging to the sailors still parked in the port - suggesting their owners had not returned to collect them.
Elsewhere today, rumours began circulating in Ukrainian media that Admiral Igor Osipov - the commander of Russia's Black Sea fleet which the Moskva led - has been arrested in what would be the latest in a string of detentions linked to the bungled invasion.
Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian-Israeli businessman who fled the country in 2003 after being targeted by Putin, said yesterday that 20 Russian generals have been arrested over the military's failings along with 150 FSB officers for providing false information about Ukraine's defences.
Putin's revenge: Russia strikes anti-ship missile factory near Kyiv
Russia bombed a factory in Kyiv overnight which it claims made the missiles that sunk the Moskva, as the Kremlin vowed to step up attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
Heavy explosions were seen overnight in Kyiv before Russia's Ministry of Defence said early Friday that it had destroyed the 'Vizar' plant which manufactures anti-ship missiles and other Ukrainian rockets.
The attack came just a day after the Moskva - the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet - was sunk after a fire an explosion on board that Ukraine says was caused when it was shot by two cruise missiles. Moscow says only that the cause is being 'investigated'.
The defence ministry also warned that it will step up its attacks on Kyiv in the coming days, which it said comes in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.
A village in Russia's border region with Belarus, which houses a military base, was struck Thursday - coming after explosions at an ammo dump and oil facility in Belgorod, an along a nearby train line.
Images from Belgorod in the early hours of Friday showed anti-aircraft missiles in the sky, suggesting fresh strikes were underway.
Meanwhile, the military claimed to have shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter involved in the attack on the Bryansk region near Chernihiv.
Ukraine has not acknowledged carrying out any such strikes, but has also not denied being behind them. |
