According to Ukrainian officials, the captain of the Moskva missile cruiser died in the Black Sea disaster.
According to Kyiv sources, First Rank Captain Anton Kuprin, 44, was murdered after the ship was mortally holed by Ukrainian Neptune missiles.
The Moskva was one of Vladimir Putin’s biggest ships and had previously proven lethal in the fight, most notably at Snake Island.
The courageous troops instructed the Moskva’s commander to “go f*** himself” when he asked the island’s defenders to surrender.
On the first day of the conflict, Kuprin delivered the order to bombard Snake Island.
According to Anton Gerashenko, a Kyiv interior ministry expert, he “killed amid an explosion and fire on board the former flagship of the Russian Federation’s Black Sea Fleet.”
“We do not mourn,” the official stated.
Other sources back up the idea that Captain Kuprin was assassinated.
Russia claims that the crew was evacuated, but there are growing concerns about lost life on the warship.
A “farewell ceremony” for the cruiser is scheduled for today at Sevastopol at a monument commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Russian navy.
There was no official confirmation from Moscow on Kuprin’s death, but Russia has failed to report the deaths of numerous key military figures during the 51-day conflict.
Exiled Russian lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev, 46, who was the sole MP to vote against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Crimea eight years ago, stated today that he believes just 58 of the 510-person crew survived the Moskva catastrophe.
According to rumours, Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, has been detained in connection with the disappearance of the flagship.
It comes after worries that the Moskva ship may have been carrying nuclear cruise missiles when it sunk.
Moscow was bringing the battleship back to port after saying the missile assault was caused by munitions bursting on board, but it drowned while being towed “in a storm” not far from port.
However, Ukrainian authorities have stated that there is serious concern that numerous nuclear weapons were aboard the ship that sank off the coast of Sevastopol.
