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Russian Navy flagship is BLOWN UP: 'Go f*** yourself' warship Moskva is 'hit by Ukrainian missiles', explodes and rolls over in the ocean as 510 crew are evacuated - amid fears of hundreds of deaths in massive blow to Putin
Russia's Black Sea flagship - the Soviet-era guided missile cruiser Moskva (top and bottom, file images) - has been badly damaged after Ukraine claimed to have struck it with two Neptune anti-ship missiles late Wednesday. Russian state media confirmed the ship's crew had to be evacuated due to a fire on board that caused ammunition to explode, but refused to be drawn on the cause of the blaze - saying only that it is 'under investigation'. But Ukraine said the vessel was struck by two missiles launched from one of its coastal batteries, with sources linked to the Russian Wagner military group further claiming that the ship had rolled over and sunk. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of defence, said that hundreds of sailors may have died in the sinking. If confirmed, it would mark the single-largest casualty inflicted on the Russian military by Ukraine so-far during the war and another embarrassing loss for Putin's men. The victory is all the more symbolic because the Moskva was the Russian vessel that attacked Ukrainian troops on Snake Island in the early days of the war, demanding they first surrender before receiving the now-iconic reply: 'Russian warship, go f*** yourself.'