Russia claims one sailor dead and 27 missing following sinking of Black Sea warship Moskva

Russian state media has claimed that one sailor has died and that 27 are missing after the sinking of the Black Sea warship Moskva.

The RIA news agency cited the Russian defence ministry, also asserting that 396 members of the crew have been rescued.

While Moscow claims the Blak Sea flagship sank last week after a fire lead to an ammunition explosion, Ukraine has claimed that it took down the ship using missiles.

Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian investigative journalist and lead Russia investigator at Bellingcat, shared his scepticism of the Russian defence ministry’s claim.

“Russia’s MoD claims only one person died on board the sunk Moskva cruiser, with 27 ‘missing’ (is there another word for missing in the sea??) and 396 ‘evacuated to Sevastopol’. So they’re saying essentially 28 killed and 396 saved. Highly improbable given the damage,” he tweeted.

“As a result of a fire on April 13, the Moskva missile cruiser was seriously damaged due to the detonation of ammunition,” the ministry said in a statement published by Russian news agencies. “One serviceman was killed, another 27 crew members went missing,” they said.

“The remaining 396 members,” were evacuated, they claimed.

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