Nature May Have Aided Sinking Of Russian Flagship

The 40-year-old Slava class cruiser was struck with two Neptune anti-ship missiles in April, eventually causing the vessel to explode and sending it to the bottom of the Black Sea. Ukrainian Pravda, or UP, conducted extensive interviews with Ukrainian soldiers who launched the domestically produced Neptune missiles from the Odesa region.

UP’s account says Neptune missiles were fired at other ships very early in the conflict. The first targets were three Russian amphibious troop ships steaming from Crimea to the Mykolaiv region, but Russian air defense systems intercepted those munitions. Still, the launches surprised the Russian Navy, as the Ukrainian military was not thought to possess operational shore-based anti-ship missiles in February, according to UP.

The outlet also published a photo of the launch of one of the two missiles that struck Moskva, as seen below.

On April 13, a single Neptune battery picked up a large object about 120 kilometers from the coast with its targeting…