DOES THIS IMAGE PROVE THAT ALL 510 CREW OF SUNKEN FLAGSHIP SURVIVED?
MYSTERY last night surrounded the fate of the crew of Russia’s lost Black Sea flagship as Ukraine claimed they had all perished while Russia broadcast footage that it claimed was of the sailors safe and well.
In a humiliation for the Kremlin and Russia’s navy, the Moskva sank on Thursday shortly after being struck by two Neptune anti-ship missiles.
It took the Kremlin a day to acknowledge that the guided missile cruiser had been lost, although it claimed the vessel went down as it was being towed to port after a fire.
Ukraine yesterday claimed the entire 510 crew of 12,500-ton vessel, including Anton Kuprin, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, had died.
Last night, a 38-second video emerged on social media that claimed to show the crew being greeted by Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, commander of the Russian Navy, in a military parade in Crimea. However, the veracity of the footage could not be verified.