Subs launching more missiles after flagship sunk

Russia is believed to be using its submarines in the Black Sea to hit far-off Ukrainian targets with cruise missiles, with its warships forced to take a more cautious approach since the sinking of the cruiser Moskva.

The missile launches, some from 50 metres beneath the surface, are difficult to spot even with overhead satellites, but naval experts say the Kilo-class submarines have regularly been seen loading long-range missiles and warheads at Russian ports before disappearing underwater again.

There was ‘‘strong circumstantial evidence’’ that the submarines had been attacking Ukrainian land positions, said analyst H I Sutton and Benjamin Pittet, an investigator at the nonprofit Centre for Information Resilience.

The Russian navy is thought to have four Kilo-class boats operating in the Black Sea. They are armed with Kalibr cruise missiles – equivalent to the American Tomahawk – which can be launched from torpedo tubes and have a range of about 2500km.

The Moskva, flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, sank on April 14 after reportedly being hit by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles. Russia says a fire on the cruiser caused a munitions explosion.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said yesterday in a terse announcement that one crew member died and 27 were missing, while 396 others were evacuated. It did not offer any explanation for its earlier claims that the full crew got off the ship before it sank.

Keeping the locations of the submarines a secret is strategically important. Sutton said he had been ‘‘keeping an eye on their port activities’’ using open-source tools. ‘‘We cannot observe them under the waves, but we do see them loading weapons.’’