A Russian warship in the Black Sea suffered severe damage and its entire crew was evacuated, according to a Russian news agency on Thursday.
Citing a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was reported that a fire aboard the Mosvka missile cruiser caused an explosion resulting in severe damage.
Russian officials did not provide further details on the cause of the fire, but Odessa governor in the region around the Black Sea port, Maksym Marchenko confirmed that Mosvka had been shot down by two Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missiles.
Meanwhile, adviser to the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovych claimed that 510 Russian crew members were on board the ship at the time of the incident.
The missile cruiser had previously approached Snake Island (a Ukrainian island in the Black Sea) at the start of the conflict, but failed because it was chased away by border guards on the island.
In contrast to the Russian logistics ship Orsk which was destroyed by Ukraine last month, the Moskva is an attack warship designed to attack targets from afar. Moscow used the ship off the coast of Syria in 2015.
In the meantime separately, the United States said on Wednesday that it would send additional military equipment worth $ 800 million to Ukraine, including artillery and helicopters.
