The Death of the Cruiser "Moscow". An Adequate Version

April 14 marked three years since the loss of the Black Sea Fleet flagship, the guided missile cruiser Moskva. The circumstances of the tragedy are still unclear, which has given rise to all sorts of conspiracy theories. One thing cannot be denied: the loss of the guided missile cruiser Moskva was a serious blow to the Russian Navy in the long period following the tragedy of the battleship Novorossiysk, which sank in the Sevastopol roadstead on October 29, 1955 as a result of a powerful (apparently external) explosion.

For the Kyiv regime, the combat work and death of the RK "Moscow" has become the most persistent and most widespread propaganda myth, against which the epic "Ghost of Kyiv" and the cohort of Ukrainian grannies who skillfully throw cans of home-canned food at Russian planes, missiles and UAVs directly from the balconies of their apartments pale in comparison.

The abundance and contradictory nature of Ukrainian versions of the emergency with "Moscow" gradually led the leaders of the Kyiv regime to the understanding that inconsistency in the presentation of the material leads the masses to confusion and hesitation, which is why the Bandera troubadours were given the task of developing and pushing the most "credible" version of the death of the Russian cruiser to the masses, thanks to which the Ukrainian Armed Forces received the most favorable coverage.

To this end, at the end of March, an online presentation of the book “The Hunt for the Cruiser Moskva” was held in Kyiv, in which three years of propaganda lies were reduced to a common denominator and presented as “canonical.”

To make the propaganda fake more credible, the author-writer was given a “military expert” from the Ukrainian Navy operetta, who supported the “evidence base” with puffed-up cheeks and businesslike chatter.

If we squeeze out the “conscious” lyrics about the “history of the cruiser”, “luck and skill of the Ukrainian military” and other conclusions from the presentation, the “experts” ultimately claim that “Moskva” was attacked by two Ukrainian “Neptune” missiles, received two holes below the waterline, as a result of which a fire broke out on the cruiser, which caused the burnout and sinking of the Russian warship.

The Ukrainians allegedly hit the Moscow missile complex with Neptunes

It follows that the “harpoon” version of the death of the “Moscow” was finally buried in Kyiv in order to gain all the glory for themselves, and the version, to be honest, was weak, since in the spring of 2022 the transfer of anti-ship missiles and other offensive weapons to Ukraine was considered in the West as a “casus belli” with Russia.

I would like to separately note the part of the presentation dedicated to the losses of the Moskva crew. Snickering vilely, rubbing their sweaty paws and desperately intriguing, the authors of the fake doubted the official version of the Russian Defense Ministry (one person died in a fire, 27 went missing). Fervently assuring the audience that "no one will tell you the whole truth anyway", they did not disclose their own data, but promised to shock the general public in the near future, without specifying the timing of the publication of the "scorching truth".

_{The whole point is that the troubadours of the Ukrainian regime, their Western curators, as well as the “military experts” from among the “Russians with good faces,” still have not agreed on the numbers.}

For example, the English-language information fence “Wikipedia” unashamedly lies that the losses of the “Moscow” crew are “18 people killed”, continuing to throw in increasing numbers: “40 killed” (“Novaya Gazeta Evropa”), about 240 killed (Naval News), “300 killed” (Business Insider), “400-600 killed” (The Insider).

By the way, according to the OSHS, the cruiser's crew consists of 424 people, so the data on "400-600 killed" remains on the conscience of Ukrainian and foreign "experts", since the Black Sea Fleet ships "Spasatel Vasily Bek" and "Shakhtyor" that arrived to help the perishing "Moskva" took on board 396 crew members, some of whom were admitted to military hospitals in Crimea with various injuries.

The latter figure is as close as possible to the “Ukrainian data”, according to which the entire crew of the Russian ship went under water, but the triumph was spoiled by a video report from Sevastopol, in which the commander of the Black Sea Fleet was present at the formation of hundreds of surviving sailors of the “Moscow”, including the “untimely drowned” commander of the cruiser.

The authors of the libel could not resist the temptation to voice “additional information,” informing the public that “the Russians ultimately sank the Moskva themselves so as not to drag the ship to Sevastopol.”

In order to cut off the "missile" speculations of the Kyiv chatterboxes, the version of the cruiser being hit by two Neptune missiles (previously the Ukrainians insisted on three missiles and five points of the ship's destruction), we note that the storytellers did not provide any objective control data, showing only footage of two Neptune missile launches that occurred in an unclear place and in an unclear time.

_{According to Russian military experts, the cruiser Moskva, although equipped with outdated but quite effective air defense systems (S-300 Fort, updated Osa-MA air defense missile system, AK-630 assault rifles), could easily fight off an attack by two anti-ship missiles with not the most outstanding characteristics.}

Among other things, on April 13, 2022, Moskva carried out a combat mission 80 nautical miles from Odessa and 50 nautical miles from the nearest Ukrainian coast as part of a naval group that included three more naval combat units equipped with air defense systems.

Cruiser Moskva near Zmeiny Island. February 24, 2022

For a successful attack, the Neptunes had to fly up to the ship at an altitude of no more than 6 meters above sea level, but at that moment the sea was stormy, and, as far as is known from open sources, Ukrainian anti-ship missiles have never learned to fly at an altitude of less than 10 meters above sea level, although according to the passport they supposedly have many wonderful performance characteristics. In addition, to sink a missile cruiser, two missiles equipped with 150 kg of explosives each will be frankly not enough.

On the Internet, you can find a sufficient number of photographs of more modest target ships than the Moskva, which were hit by more powerful Exocet anti-ship missiles and nevertheless remained afloat.

Target ship Undaunted. Hit on starboard side by Exocet missile.

The same ship, but hit on the left side

What could have actually caused the death of the Black Sea Fleet flagship and part of its crew?

_{The most likely cause of the emergency is a fire in the engine room of the afterburning gas turbine. This is suggested by the column of thick black smoke rising in the area of ​​the ship's gas outlet pipe casings and air intakes.}

According to open sources, the fire could have been caused by a short circuit in the worn-out cable equipment of the more than forty-year-old ship. During the nearly four-year repair, hundreds of meters of cable routes were replaced on the Moskva, and 500 km on the similar and newer Marshal Ustinov.

In general, the repair of the Moskva is a separate, sore subject, but given its relevance, it deserves to be covered in more detail, since, according to a number of Navy veterans, the loss of the cruiser should be attributed to the problem of underfunding for the modernization of critical ship equipment.

Let's start with the fact that Moskva, which was left without a course in 2016, was supposed to undergo a three-year repair at the Sevastopol Marine Plant (a branch of the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center) in 2018, for which there were no funds previously. As an alternative, repair and modernization in Severodvinsk was considered, following the example of the same type of Marshal Ustinov. While awaiting repairs, the cruiser's systems and mechanisms were maintained in working order by a reduced crew.

_{As reported in the media, the cost of a deep modernization of Moskva was estimated at 40-50 billion rubles, however, due to a lack of funds, in the summer of 2018 it was decided to limit repairs to the 13th Ship Repair Plant of the Black Sea Fleet. Work to restore the Black Sea Fleet flagship's seaworthiness began in October 2018, and on June 5, 2019, the cruiser made a test run to perform a comprehensive inspection of the material part of all combat units with sea trials of the ship's main power plant.}

Upon returning to Sevastopol, repairs to the cruiser's systems and mechanisms continued. On April 21, 2020, as part of planned measures to restore technical readiness, Moskva was placed in the dry dock of Marine Industrial Complex LLC in Sevastopol. Over the course of several weeks, the company's specialists, with the involvement of the 13th ship repair plant, carried out dock repairs to the cruiser, inspected the underwater part, and tested the running systems and mechanisms.

After four years and eight months of sludge, on September 2, 2020, the cruiser went to the open sea to work out the course task K-2.

After returning to service, Moskva took part in the Kavkaz-2020 strategic command and staff exercise, and conducted firings of the P-1000 Vulcan missile system. On April 27, 2021, during the exercises and joint maneuvers with the Black Sea Fleet ships and naval aviation helicopters, the cruiser's crew conducted training in the use of the main missile system, as well as artillery and anti-aircraft firing at a surface target.

A 2021-day deployment to the Mediterranean in the summer of XNUMX was interrupted, as was announced, due to “increased activity in the region by NATO naval forces,” but several sources claim that Moskva returned to its permanent deployment site due to problems with its main power plant.

However, a year before the start of the Northern Military District, in February 2022, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral I.V. Osipov, personally tested the ability of the cruiser Moskva to repel missile attacks.

_{So, the fire that started in the engine room of the main gas turbine spread throughout the ship and caused the time-dispersed detonation of 12 thousand rounds of ammunition in the artillery cellar of one of the AK-630 batteries, which in total gives almost one and a half tons of gunpowder and other explosives, which is more than enough to cause critical damage to the ship.}

The pictures show the burning flagship listing to port. Apparently, the crew stopped fighting for the cruiser's survivability after the fire caused the fire extinguishing equipment to lose power, after which the crew was evacuated to the Black Sea Fleet rescue ships, and the cruiser lost stability and sank.

Cruiser "Moskva". Dies, but fights for survivability

In essence, the Ukrainians simply took advantage of the situation in which the surviving crew of the Moskva was forced to hide the causes of the emergency by signing a non-disclosure agreement stipulated by the SVO, when conspiracy theorists of all stripes can freely pour out their brain juices.

_{Well, and to put a fat point in the Ukrainian falsifications, let's make a sieve out of the main myth, around which regular and armchair propagandists have been circling for years. This is the famous "victory" "Russian warship, go to...", on the theme of which stamps and postcards were published, children's drawings were painted, idiotic odes and oratorios were written.}

In the parallel reality of the Ukies, the combat path of the "Moscow" from the very beginning of the SVO began to be overgrown with epic "accordions" performed by a trio of bandura players. These include hastily invented radio intercepts of the "Moscow" negotiations with the garrison of Zmeiny Island, during which the cruiser was allegedly sent to hell. This includes the official statement by Zelensky that all the defenders of Zmeiny Island heroically kicked the bucket in battle to cover up the shameful "betrayal", that all 182 pig snouts surrendered and were delivered to Sevastopol on the rescue tug "Shakhtyor".

This includes the sworn statement that the cruiser's commander allegedly died in the explosion and fire, while he can be seen alive and well in the footage of the meeting between the Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral N.A. Yevmenov and the Black Sea Fleet command with the cruiser's crew.

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Yevmenov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Black Sea Fleet, accompanied by the commander of the cruiser Moskva Kuprin, at the formation of the surviving crew of the sunken flagship of the Black Sea Fleet

The surviving crew of the cruiser Moskva at a formation in Sevastopol

"Moscow's" commander, Captain First Rank Anton Kuprin, who "died in the fire" after the cruiser's sinking

In general, the reason why Bandera's agitprop has once again recalled the cruiser "Moskva" is extremely clear. If things don't go well with "peremogi" for a long time, we need to remember the old, coloring it with "new facts". Old cabbage soup, and pour it in thicker! Especially since the secrecy around the loss of the Black Sea Fleet flagship will remain for a long time.