RUSSIAN CRUISER 'MOSKVA' SUNK - FULL ANALYSIS

The Russian FLAGSHIP of the Black Sea Fleet, the Cruiser MOSKVA sunk as a result of an explosion of an ammunition compartment. Question is: what caused the explosion? A humiliating accident, or was it targeted by Ukrainian Neptune missiles?

In any case, this is a severe blow to the prestige of the Russian navy. It could hinder Russian capabilities to operate freely near the Ukrainian coastline and indirectly secure the city of Odesa from an amphibious landing.
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[dziugasluscinskas]

Fun fact: "Moskva" was the first ship of "Slava" class. Two other ships of this class were completed. The fourth ship was never completed and to this day she is docked in port of Mykolaiv (in Ukraine) unfinished.

[_kosciuszko]

The ship didn't sink, it's participating in a special submersible operation

[misterjones]

The Russians conducted airstrikes on an Anti-Ship Missile factory in Kyiv, in response to an accidental fire on the Moskva

[AlxanderMatt]

It's normal to loose units in battle, it's called "war" but at least if you loose a unit in a fight, that unit is lost honorably.
If you say that your flagship, that carries the name of your capital city, that is combat ready and operating in the line of fire is lost due to a stupid accident you are saying the world that your military Is composed of idiots and your equipment is crap. In other words you are pissing on your own men's sacrifice.

[victorivas]

you forgot a crucial detail, easily checked: ukrainians announced first they hit the ship. after a few hours russians announced the fire on the ship. therefore, I believe ukrainians actually hit the ship, because there's no way they knew about the fire on the ship before the russians announcement.

[Kameeho]

I used to serve in a Royal Norwegian Navy.

I have some insight to this,

When it comes to anti ship missiles.
What is common is to launch missiles en masse in salvos.
Most ships have some form of missile protection. But they are limited how many missiles they can protect against.
Which is why example a carrier formation consist of so many ships.
And why the role of a Picket ship is important in such formation.
Picket ships are usually smaller weapons, usually loaded with anti air / missile defence capability.
In lay men terms, the more guns, the better.
While the Moskva is old. It is still a powerfull power projection.
Infact, the navy's number 1 strength is power projection.
While the Russians have been historically horrible at handling their naval forces. They have been painfully aware of it. But it dosnt make their ships any less dangerous.
With the Moskva out of action.
This will severely cripple the Black Sea fleet capability, and more importantly, its power projection.

If people are curious how impactfull power projection is, one can just take the Italian Navy during ww2.
While it mostly were held up in Italian docks. Its mere presence jeopardised any allied shipping in the Mediterranean.
It also held up a lot of British naval forces, so much so that the British navy were held up in the Mediterranean, where it was desperately needed in the Pacific front.

Now, when it comes to what I think have to Moskva.
I do think most lightly they got hit by missiles.
If both russian and Western sources state that there was an explosion in the ammo compartment of Moskva.
Then that, even with complete incompetence, should not be possible, unless it was done intentionally.
Ammo is securely stored, separated away from other critical parts of the ship.
Access and handling of munition is strictly controlled.

And if Russia denies missile strikes. Then they are admitting something far worse, and that is incompetence in While new level.

While engine and fuel fire is understandable.
Aswell as electrical or hydrolic failure.

Mishandling of munitions is beyond anything.

Just to put in perspective, it is easier to mishandle ammo on land storage facilities compared to ammo storage on a ship.

But then again.
Never underestimate human stupidity.

[agdmnm]

I feel like ukrainians could've sinked any ship along Odessa's coast this whole time, but they specifically waited and targeted this one. Why? 1: Its Russia's best cruiser and provides air cover for the whole russian fleet in the Black Sea (by destroying it, makes other russian vessels vulnerable to future air attacks) 2: To send a strong message. This completely scraps any amphibious operations, also with Odessa protected makes it an important logistical point where they can push russians in Kherson keeping them busy so they're a bit more spread out when it comes to Donbas battle preparations

[onyxdragon]

If I had to choose between losing a ship because of incompetence or because the enemy destroyed it, I'd much rather choose "destroyed by enemy".
It would hurt my prestige less

[giovanni-edzq]

moskva may have been an older ship but it was the largest russian cruiser. it also went 2 modernization upgrades. the last being a 3 year upgrade of modernization that was completed in 2020-2021. it was suppose to keep the moskva effective and in operation until 2040.

the biggest blow is that it had 64 anti ship launchers of 2-300. it was the main anti air defence in southern region and coast. the russians only had 3 slava class missile cruisers and cannot replace that air defence because turkey will not allow any russian military vessels into the black sea now. it means ukrainian planes and helicopters can operate pretty much freely in the south and along the coast.

[giovanni-edzq]

i believe the americans are now saying 2 neptune missiles struck the moskva in stormy weather with 6 ft waves. i believe only reported survivors is from turkish vessel that picked up around 60 sailors.

my thoughts on why this happened. russian ships for past 50 days or so were coming in without fear or threat, close enough to fire missiles or naval guns on odessa and the coastal shore of ukraine. The reason being the ukrainians had a limited amount of anti ship missiles and were likely saving them for possible amphibious assault. But with uk and other nations sending and receiving more anti-ship missiles, i believe the ukrainians were waiting and decided to use their neptune missiles on the moskva when it came into range because of complacency and free operation of russian navy close to ukrainian shore last 50 days. So with uk and other countries sending anti ship missiles last week, and likely arrived. the ukrainians took advantage of an opportunity to shoot at the moskva when it came into range. I believe the ukrainians with fresh supplies of anti ship missiles, are now using them when the opportunity presents to sink russian black sea fleet now.

[yaroa]

It was confirmed by Pentagon it was 2 Neptune Ukrainian-made missiles. This ship was modernized recently and carried 64 S300 anti-air missiles. But the biggest problem and giveaway the remaining ships moved further away from Odessa. Moskva was the biggest anti-air for the Kherson region and now Ukraine is able to use Baraktar over the area.

[aleksfadini]

After 9 minutes he realized the Moskva was hit by Neptunes and the Russians were lying. Quality information.

[mrk]

Even before the sinking of the Moskva the Black Sea Fleet had lost 60% of it's amphibious landing ability's since the 24th of February. Now the Fleet has retreated out of range of the Neptune missiles, there is no way the Russians could manage a partial amphibious landing let alone support it. So at least half of the forces in the Odessa area can now be redeployed to the Kerson front along with most of the units in Mykolaiv. Most of the Mykolaiv forces are being rested, receiving reinforcements and being refitted. The Territorials are more than adequate to guard Mykolaiv, which would free up the better units to face the weakened and demoralized Russian forces on the Kerson Nova front. And as an ex Royal Marine, there are plenty of areas where the Dnipro River can be crossed in force, and when I say force I mean 3 t0 4, 000 troops, all the need is low tide at about 11 pm. And once there across they'll have a bridgehead of a good 4km wide where they can keep getting troops across. I have planed and executed night river crossings, and I would choose Krynky as it's right between Kerson and Nova. The Russian defences are facing northwest on the opposite bank, and the Russians are depleted in troops and equipment with very low morale. It would cripple the Russian 58th Army at a time they are needed to defend the western flank of the Russian forces in Donbas. It would also allow the Ukrainians to 1 destroy the two bridges, 2 send the rear of both the 8th and 58th Armies into a panic, 3 retake both Cities and strengthen your foot hold, 4 attack towards both the east and south towards Crimea. All these choices would throw the Russians into a huge panic, and with the weather limiting mechanized movement a couple of Ukrainian Brigades could get to Armiansk, which would leave only one road link open for the Russians to Crimea and all those nice supplies they need.

[cannabisoutlawz]

"Sir, Our ship has been Sunk!"
-"No it Hasnt you've been Promoted to submarine"
Everything is going according to plan 🤣

[jmantime]

I think both stories are true - The ukrainian's fired 2 Neptune anti-ship missiles at Moskova, Moskova fired both her anti-missile weapons and her surface-to-surface missiles to destroy the launcher. But one or more of her missiles malfunctioned, exploding in it's tube-launcher triggering a chain explosion that crippled the ship. Russian's tried to tow her back to crimea but she foundered ( capsized ) on the way.

[tileux]

I’ve read reports that the Russian fleet off the coast of Ukraine has repositioned further away from the Ukrainian coast. If that’s correct then either the Russians are worried about fires being more likely near the Ukrainian coast - or the Russians are worried about Ukrainian missiles. My money is on the latter. Which supports the Ukrainian version of events.

My understanding is the Moskva only has 16 anti-missile missiles. Twenty four missiles in one firing would obviously overwhelm the ship’s defences.

[wojtek]

It was an accident of course. Russians do not lie. It is absolutely normal that this accident caused anti-Ukrainian rages in Russian TV and retaliatory rocket attacks on Kiev. That's what you usually do when accident happens on your ship.

[haroldslawter]

If it didn't get hit by missiles from the coast then why did they move the rest of their Fleet away from the coast after this so-called accident?

[nadjibnour]

I really like your channel and especially how you're objective when analysing tactics and strategies. I wish you do us more movies and video games reaction. Best of luck mate.

[jessefinney]

You should have added the fact that a Moskva cruiser in ww2 1941 was sunk in the same area near snake island by the Romanian navy! ironically at the time snake island was owned by Romania. It was a Romanian ship made in Italy I believe not sure what class of ship it was but still... that's one big L. Don't know why they gave it the same name. Navies never name a ship after a sunken ship.