Russia acknowledged for the first time that a Ukrainian missile had sunk its valuable Black Sea flagship, but later deleted that statement and returned to its official explanation that the guided-missile cruiser Moscow sank in a freak accident.
The Moscow was one of Russia’s most important warships when it sank in April 2022, just seven weeks after Russia launched its unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Kiev immediately claimed the collision was a Neptune anti-ship cruise missile, but Russia pushed a different version of the story.
The Russian Defense Ministry has always maintained that the Moskva sank after a fire broke out and ammunition on board exploded. The Russian military said at the time that the warship’s crew had been evacuated, but later acknowledged that some were missing.
Last week, a military tribunal in Moscow inadvertently corrected the Kremlin’s official narrative, according to Russian independent media outlet Mediazona. Mediazona said the court issued a statement regarding the sentencing of the Ukrainian naval commander who ordered the attack on Moscow and another ship, the Admiral Essen frigate. According to the court, he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment.
The statement was quickly removed from the court’s website, but Mediazona was able to download it.
The loss of Moscow was extremely embarrassing for Russia and became one of Ukraine’s most important victories in the war to date.
CNN questioned Russian officials about the apparent setback. Spokesperson for the 2nd Western Regional Military Court, Irina Zhirnova, who was supposed to issue the now-deleted statement, said she had no comment. The Russian military did not respond to CNN’s request.
Mediazona has previously reported extensively on the circumstances of the Moskva sinking and published testimonies from the families of the dead sailors, but their deaths were not officially recognized by the Russian military.
“On April 13, 2022, a missile attack by two missiles hit the SS Moskva missile cruiser, filling the ship with fire and smoke,” the court said in a statement, according to the Mediazona news agency.
“The explosion, fire and smoke killed 20 of the cruiser’s crew, 24 suffered various serious injuries and eight were missing, including more than six hours of fighting for the ship’s survival,” the statement said, adding that the ship was “not involved” in Russian operations in Ukraine.
Asked for comment by CNN, Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pretenchuk said it would be difficult for Russia to deny the sinking, especially since the families of the Moskva crew members have spoken out.
The retraction of the statement by the court is just the latest propaganda failure by the Russian authorities.
Early in the invasion, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti prematurely published an editorial celebrating Russia’s victory in the war, but it was quickly removed. Almost four years later, while Russian forces continue to struggle on the front lines and make incremental territorial gains at extremely high costs, Ukraine has managed to retake large swathes of territory that Moscow first invaded.
The Russian military and Kremlin have exercised extremely tight control over the discourse surrounding Russia’s war with Ukraine, refusing to call the conflict a “war” and even calling it instead Russia’s “special military operation.”
A number of journalists who have reported on the facts on the ground, including documenting massacres committed by Russian soldiers in places such as Bucha, have been jailed for spreading “misinformation” about the Russian military.
The Committee to Protect Journalists announced in December that at least 27 journalists have been jailed on criminal charges related to their reporting since Russia began its full-scale invasion. The commission announced that four people had been released, two had been expelled and one had been killed. The rest are still in prison.
