The Moscow ushered in the final chapter of its life in the Black Sea, its birthplace.
Moscow, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, is considered a source of pride by the Russian Navy, having seen it on the battlefields of Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014 and Syria in 2015. In this Russo-Ukrainian war, the "Moscow" undertook the heavy responsibility of the Russian army to "block the Ukrainian sea route". It was born in a Ukrainian shipyard but fell into the sea in a showdown with Ukraine, and its sinking is considered the biggest loss of the Russian navy since World War II. Why did the Moscow sink? What are the hidden things behind it?
Moscow, with a displacement of about 11,500 tons, can carry more than 500 crews, equipped with 16 "basalt" heavy anti-ship missiles, is the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
On February 18, on the eve of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, which is regarded as the pride of the Russian Navy, was conducting a naval gun firing exercise in the Black Sea. At that time, it was majestic.
On February 24, the Russo-Ukrainian War began. The cruiser Moscow led the Black Sea Fleet on a blockade mission to the southern ukrainian seas in support of Russian amphibious operations.
Liu Le (Military Commentator):
"The main task of the Moscow is to play a deterrent role, to make the remaining ships of the Ukrainian Navy dare not come forward, and at the same time it is a huge deterrent to the NATO ships that are eyeing the surrounding tigers."
【1】
On 13 April, the Russo-Ukrainian War entered its 49th day. The two sides have gathered their combat strength, the ground battlefield has become more and more intense, and the Donbass region is about to usher in a decisive battle. On the battlefield, the Moskva is flying around Snake Island and Odessa.
On the evening of the same day, the Ukrainian side issued a message saying that the border troops stationed on Snake Island had severely damaged the cruiser "Moscow" traveling in the nearby waters with the "Neptune" cruise missile, causing the "Moscow" to explode with ammunition, which immediately caused serious damage to the ship and a large-scale fire.
As soon as the news came out, it aroused the world's attention.
On April 13, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the fire on the "Moscow" caused the ammunition explosion, the hull of the ship was seriously damaged, the crew had all been evacuated, and the cause of the fire was still under investigation. But there was no mention of the attack on the Ukrainian side.
At about 4:00 a.m. on April 14, the Russian Defense Ministry again issued a message indicating that the Russian army had lost stability and sunk in the fierce winds and waves while towing the Moscow to the port of destination.
The huge ship of 10,000 tons that has been in service for nearly 40 years fell to the bottom of the sea.
The day after the sinking of the Moscow, the War between Russia and Ukraine became more intense. The Russian side attacked the Neptune missile production plant in Kiev. The Reuters article pointed out that this is Russia's retaliation for the "Moscow" accident.
Five days after the sinking of the Moscow, the Ukrainian side released photos of the damage to a number of missile cruisers moscow. The photographs show the Moskva tilting to starboard, with a red flame inside the superstructure and suspected black holes on the side of the ship.
Wang Yunfei (Military Expert):
"The bridge part is smoking, it should hit the front, but the possibility of causing a chain reaction explosion in the front is also there. It is also possible if a shell is hit, causing a chain of explosions, but there is no definitive proof that such a consequence was produced. However, judging from the comparison of the two parties' explanations, I am afraid that the possibility of being hit by the Ukrainian "Neptune" missile is relatively large. ”
On April 16, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Nikolai Yevmenov, received all the crew of the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Moscow, in Sevastopol, and the captain, who was rumored to have died, also appeared at the scene.
Western media said that this is the Russian side to boost the morale of the soldiers, and pointed out that earlier the Russian side claimed that all the staff of the "Moscow" were rescued, but the number of personnel received this time was not "up to standard".
On April 22, the Russian side changed its original statement. The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a notice saying that 1 soldier of the "Moscow" was killed, the whereabouts of another 27 crew members were unknown, and the remaining 396 crew members were evacuated from the cruiser to the ships of the Black Sea Fleet in the area and sent to Sevastopol.
Although the casualties of the crew are unknown and the reasons for the sinking are various, this has undoubtedly become the largest loss of the Russian Navy since the beginning of the war.
Li Jie (Researcher, Naval Military Academic Research Institute):
"Any country's equipment or a force named after its capital, the total destruction, I think is a relatively big blow, at least a humiliation."
【2】
As one of the few active large surface ships in the Russian Navy, the "Moscow" has frequently appeared on the stage of Russian politics, military and diplomacy, and has always earned enough attention. Its arrogant and athletic posture reflects the glory of the past, and supports the inviolable international dignity of the ill-fated Russia.
The moscow was originally called the Glorious. In the 1960s, when the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union entered a white-hot phase, after experiencing the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union realized that it could not compete with the United States on the ocean without a reliable ocean-going fleet.
After Brezhnev came to power, he gave the green light to the construction of the Soviet Navy and formulated a number of plans for the manufacture of large ships.
In 1976, the Shipyard of the "61 Communes" of Nikolaev, an important production site for equipment of the Soviet Navy in Ukraine, began construction of the first of 10 cruisers, the Moscow, which was then called the "Glorious". According to the naming convention that set the name of the first ship as the name of the class, the latest ships were named the "Glory" class. They came into being in the context of the U.S.-Soviet equipment race and carried the Soviet Union's determination to ride the wind and waves on the sea.
Liu Le (Military Commentator):
The ship is equipped with 16 sandbox anti-ship missiles that fly at a maximum speed of more than twice the speed of sound and have a maximum range of more than 550 kilometers. Any one that hits a U.S. aircraft carrier could cause serious injuries or sinking. Therefore, this type of ship was still quite powerful at that time, and it was also a very jealous equipment of the US Navy. ”
In early December 1989, the Malta Summit was held. More than six years after its completion, the Honor was ordered to escort the Maxim Gorky, which Gorbachev and Bush were aboard. The meeting between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union was seen as a sign of the "end of the Cold War."
【3】
Two years after the Malta summit, the Soviet Union collapsed. The cruiser "Glorious", which was born in the Brezhnev era and brilliantly in the Gorbachev era, also faced a surprise ruling.
Li Jie (Researcher, Naval Military Academic Research Institute):
"At that time, Ukraine and the Soviet Union were negotiating to want the Black Sea Fleet, and Russia did not agree."
Wang Yunfei (Military Expert):
"Controlling the direction of the Black Sea, it is difficult for NATO to form a strong pressure on Russia. Warships that can be unimpeded in the Black Sea, as well as civilian fleets, can operate normally. So Russia refused to agree at the time, even though the Crimean Peninsula belonged to Ukraine at the time. ”
When the Soviet Union collapsed, only the first 3 of the 10 Glorious-class cruisers, including the Honor, were completed, and the remaining 2 were commissioned into Russia's Northern Fleet and Pacific Fleet, respectively. The 4th "Ukraine" was 95% complete, but the final outfitting work has not yet been completed.
At this point, the construction plan of the next 6 Glory-class cruisers was completely canceled. The cruiser "Glory" thus became the only 10,000-ton main combat ship of the Black Sea Fleet.
In 1990, the "Glory" returned to Nikolayev from Sevastopol, ready to undergo repairs and modernization at the mother plant.
On March 21, 1991, the repair work officially began. The regular maintenance and upgrading that was originally planned for 8 months has become far away due to the disintegration of the country and political turmoil.
Wang Yunfei (Military Expert):
"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the state of disrepair was at its worst, half of the ships were out of service. Under normal circumstances, ships that have been more than 30 years old should be retired, and Russia has adopted the method of upgrading the ships to extend their life. ”
【4】
In May 1995, the Russian government mobilized the people in the country to raise funds for the restoration of the "Glory", raising a special fund of more than 3.5 billion rubles from the municipal government, and the shipyards of the "61 commune members" in Ukraine resumed the upgrading and repair of the "Glory".
In June 1995, Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on the division of ships of the Black Sea Fleet, in which 81.7% of the surface ships, including the "Glory", were taken over by Russia; while the fourth "Glory" class cruiser "Ukraine" and 18.3% of the ships belonged to Ukraine; the Russian side could continue to use the port of Sevastopol in southern Crimea as a fleet base, and lease several airports, port facilities and land camps on the Crimean Peninsula until 2017, retaining the right to renew the lease.
The Honor was finally determined to belong. In 1996, it was officially renamed "Moscow".
The following year, it lowered the long-flowing Flag of the Soviet Navy and raised the Andrei Flag, which represented the Russian Navy.
On May 9, 2000, the 55th anniversary of Russia's victory in the Great Patriotic War was celebrated. Putin stands on the review stage of Moscow's Red Square, his first military parade on Red Square since he became President of Russia. In Sevastopol, Ukraine's "heroic city" 1,200 kilometers away, this year, the "Moscow" had just been revived from the eight years of renovation and upgrading after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Six months later, the guided-missile cruiser Moscow returned to the Russian Navy's operational sequence and became the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.
On August 19, 2001, Moscow sailed again into the Mediterranean Sea, nearly 12 years apart, for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But since then, the Moscow has been constantly being repaired and modified.
Wang Yunfei (Military Expert):
"In a state of old, weak, sick and disabled, it needs maintenance, about a dozen years, and it is not in a state of war readiness at all."
Although TASS optimistically declared in a report in the summer of 2020 that the ship could remain in service until 2040, moscow remained in a state of suspension throughout the second half of 2020, and did not resume outbound activities until February 2021. The situation in Russia and Ukraine became more and more tense, and the "Moscow" began to appear frequently in the Black Sea.
After the outbreak of the war, the "Moscow", which had been in service for nearly 40 years, sailed into the unpredictable maritime theater of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. As the conflict escalated, the Moscow appeared in the waters near Snake Island and made several operational deployments in the Black Sea to provide air defense cover for the Russian army.
On March 22, the Russians attacked the shipyard of the "61 Commune Members" of Nikolaev, the birthplace of the Moscow.
Wang Yunfei (Military Expert):
"Since 1991, Russia has not had a single ship of more than 4,500 tons in service, all of which were 30 years ago, with the ambition of a great power's navy, but the strength is no longer enough to support it in the world to compete with the United States for maritime supremacy."
【5】
On 15 April, the Russian Black Sea Fleet held a farewell ceremony for the Moscow at Sevastopol. People gathered in the port of Sevastopol to send flowers and bid farewell to the sunken Moscow.
On the streets of Kiev on the same day, Ukrainians lined up in front of the General Post Office to buy a stamp showing the rude gesture of Ukrainian soldiers to the Moscow. To Ukrainians, the stamp is a metaphor for the Russo-Ukrainian War.
This stamp shows a small scene on the first day of the Russian-Ukrainian War. On 24 February, moskva and another large patrol ship appeared off the surface of Snake Island in the northwestern Black Sea, firing their guns at ground facilities.
In this public opinion war, Ukraine quickly released news that 13 Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island died after refusing to surrender, and Zelenskiy said that these soldiers would be posthumously awarded the title of "Hero of Ukraine".
Although it later turned out that the Ukrainian soldiers guarding Snake Island were only captured, this was no longer important. What Ukraine needs is morale against a strong enemy. And now for the Ukrainians, the most important thing is that the battleship that symbolizes the mighty Russia has been sunk.
So far, Russia and Ukraine have not yet given a unanimous answer as to the reasons for the sinking of the Moscow.
After the sinking of the Moscow, the Black Sea Fleet was leaderless. The Russian Navy has only 5 large surface ships of 10,000 tons left, all of which were built during the Soviet period.
Originally known as the "Glory", the "Moscow" has the same fate as the Ukrainian "Dream" large aircraft An-225, which was blown up in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The outside world lamented that the "glory" and "dream" of Russia and Ukraine had fallen together in the smoke of war.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict continues, and there are no real victors in the war. If we want to preserve the glory of the past, there is no other choice but to achieve peace as soon as possible.
Choreographer: Hu Yuanrong
Author: Li Weifan