HISTORY

Flagship of the Black Sea Fleet shortly before sinking.

caused the fire and following ammunition

explosion on board.

The Russians admitted to the fire and explosions, not a single word about missile

hits though.

They attempted to tow the ship into the

port however it capsized in the rough seas

and sank. At the time of print of this INFO

Eduard issue the Russians claimed to have

rescued all 510 crew members. However,

considering the conditions (fire, explosions) it would have been almost a miracle.

When you read these lines, it will be clearer

what caused the sinking and how many

crew members were rescued. The loss of

the cruiser Moskva is rather serious for

Russia. Originally the ship’s name was Slava and was built in the 70s and 80s of the

last century in the shipyards of the Ukrainian Mykolayiv. The ship was 186 meters

long and had 12 500 tons displacement.

In 1990 she was decommissioned but after the modernization in 2000 became the

flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. Moskva

was armed with a 130 mm caliber cannon,

16 launchers for the anti-shipping missiles

and 64 S-300F rockets to combat aircraft

and ballistic missiles. Therefore, she was

in charge of the anti-rocket defense of the

whole fleet and after her loss the remaining

ships withdrew further from the Ukrainian

coast. That Ukrainians had something to

do with her sinking indicates the Russian

Ministry of Defense statement threatening

May 2022

Ukraine with retaliation for sinking the ship.

At least one Russian lie is confirmed by

the picture of the burning Moskva shortly

before her sinking. Calm sea is visible so

the ship could not have capsized in the rough seas. There is a large hole with metal

bent inwards visible on the port side at the

line of displacement which indicates the hit

from outside.

In the very beginning of war Moskva became famous as a ship the defenders of the

Snake Island sent to hell. When on February 24 the ship asked them to surrender

their response was “Russian military ship

f..k off”. This sentence became a symbol of

the Ukrainian resistance against Russian

aggression.

On April 13 the Ukrainian Post released the

stamps featuring the event. And the very

same day evening the Russian battleship

complied. There could not have been better

promotion for a stamp. R-360 Neptun rockets which Ukrainians supposedly used to

hit Moskva, are of interest to Czech readers

because they are intended to be installed

on the Tatra running gears. Subsonic missiles are 5 meters long and weigh 870

kilos, out of which 150 kilos is the detonation head. Their range is 300 kilometers.

Ukraine added them to their inventory only

in March last year and till the spring of this

year intends to increase their number to six

batteries but more realistically possesses

just one.

Supplies for Mariupol

Ukrainians do not fight with airplanes and

rockets only the helicopters are fairly successfully used as well. However, they don’t

report about their deployment for tactical

reasons. Only at the end of battle for Mariupol, when the city defense turned into

several centers of resistance, the information about the successful supply flight

appeared. Mi-8 pilots flew into besieged

Mariupol at the maximum speed and the lowest altitude possible. Many times it meant

flying between the trees and buildings. They

supplied the city with food and ammunition

flying back the wounded. At least one Ukrainian helicopter was shot down during these

dangerous missions. Mi-8MSB-V was destroyed on Thursday March 31 and carried

the inscription “For Baba Vera” which can

be seen in various colors on several other

Ukrainian helicopters.

Similar missions including the extremely

low helicopter flying was also conducted

on the northern side of Ukraine. On Tuesday

March 23 a series of explosions shook the

suburbs of the city of Belgorod 50 kilometers north of Kharkov when the ammunition storage exploded. The Russian investigators inclined to the theory that it was

caused by carelessness but already after

a week they stated that the storage had

been hit by three Ukrainian missiles Tochka-U. At that time Belgorod went through

another big series of explosions, this time

INFO Eduard

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