Neptune
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Slava-class guided missile cruisers were designed in the 70s as aircraft carrier destroyers. For this purpose, they were equipped with very powerful missiles, superb (by 1970s standards) S-300F, OSA-MA SAMs, 6 AK-630 point air defenses, and a lot of (old) electronics.
Since there are no aircraft carriers in the Black Sea, I suppose that the Moskva main role was as a command ship (its main canons don’t provide the range needed to support amphibious assault operations) and also as a relatively powerful mobile, floating, radar.
The Moskva was hit by something about 50km south of Snake Island which means that she was also probably watching the movement of ships near/from Romania. Frankly, that is not a task for a guided-missile cruiser.
Damage was on top of the front part, I think we can rule out both neptun missiles and mines as those would have damaged the hull much closer to the sealine.
If I absolutely have to guess, sabotage is possible, but again, a mine on the hull would be much easier and safer than climbing aboard and blowing the front ammunition storage, I think.
Sounds like an accident to me (short-circuit in the ammo storage, fire alarms not working? Happens more often than one would think, salty air and seawater wreaks havoc on electric systems especially when not properly maintained and insulated, which is likely to be the case for the Moskva).
Or it could be a Ukrainian mine detached by the recent storm and drifting southwards which the Russians failed to detect. That would explain the hull breach which later resulted in the Moskva taking in water and sinking while in tow.
I still don’t buy the “Ukrainian 2 “Neptunes” version at all, if only because the Moskva had very solid air defenses while bad weather makes minesweeping very hard. But we will probably never find out for sure, unless the members of the crew reveal what really happened.
Considering that the Ukraine has NO navy at all, I don’t see how the loss of the Moskva would hamper or significantly complicate any BSF operations.
The Moskva also had an important role in the eastern Mediterranean (Syria) and yes, there is probably where she will be missed the most.
I hope that this loss will provide the impetus to massively accelerate the modernization of old Russian (well, Soviet, really) ships and the construction of new ones.
Ukrainians had a Navy, Russia captured many ships but Ukrainians still have anti ship missiles and NATO is passing on intelligence to Ukrainians. Big blunder on Russias part but the British lost 7 ships in the Falklands War to Argentina. Now I wonder what NATO will do if Russia decides to arm its proxies to hit US and other NATO troops in Syria and Iraq? It would not be difficult for Russia to pass on intelligence and weapons to strike tit for tat. Americans lost their shit when news came out that Russia offered bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan, the news was of course fake but it shows the exceptionalism and hypocrisy of the US. US openly gives billions in weapons, trains Ukrainians, and passes on intelligence in order to kill as many Russians as possible but god forbid Russia puts out bounties on US soldiers, then the US is in disbelief and anger.
Anyways Russia conducted massive bombardment in retaliation to the Maskva sinking and Ukrainians targeting Russian cities. Kiev, Lviv, Odessa, Mariupol and many other city were hit hard. The plant that produced the Neptune anti ship missile that supposedly hit the Maskva was destroyed.