Russia says Moskva cruiser has sunk after reported Ukrainian missile strike

The Ukrainian southern military command claimed late on Wednesday to have struck the Moskva with Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles, while distracting its crew with an aerial drone, causing it to start sinking and forcing the crew to abandon ship.

Russia had said earlier that the crew of more than 500 crew were evacuated from the Soviet-era missile cruiser to other ships.

It is the most significant naval vessel to be sunk since the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed by a British submarine, HMS Conqueror in 1982. It is the first time Moscow has lost a cruiser since German planes sunk the Chervona Ukraina (Red Ukraine) in 1941 at Sevastopol, the same Crimean naval base where the Moskva was being to towed towards when it sank.

The phrase instantly became a symbol of national defiance, and is now a universal meme. The day before the Moskva was sunk, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy unveiled a new postage stamp portraying the ship and the Ukrainian border guard with his middle finger raised.

Ukraine is reported to have a limited supply of Neptune missiles and has appealed for western supplies of anti-ship weapons. The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, promised on a recent visit to Kyiv that British missiles would be made available, but they have not yet arrived.

A senior defence official in Washington said Ukrainian soldiers had been trained in the US to use not only Switchblade aerial drones, which have now been sent to Ukraine, but water-borne unmanned surface vehicles (USVs).

On Wednesday, Joe Biden approved another $800m in US military assistance to Ukraine, make a total of $2.6bn since the beginning of the war. The new tranche will include longer-range air defence systems than had been previously supplied to Ukraine.