The Russians lost their key command ship and air defense hub.

Militarnyi informs about it.

The Russians have admitted that the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the “Moskva” missile cruiser, has sunk. As the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, “Moskva” served a key role as both a command vessel and an air defense node, according to the British intelligence reports.

In addition, this incident means that Russia has suffered damage to two key naval installations since its invasion of Ukraine, the first of which was the Russian “Saratov” Alligator-class amphibious assault vessel on March 24.

“Both developments will likely force Russia to rethink its position in the Black Sea,” the British intelligence said.

“Moskva” missile cruiser is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the vessel of the 1164 Atlant project. It was launched at sea in Mykolaiv back in 1979. The warship took part in the war against Georgia in 2008 and in Syria.

“Moskva” was the carrier of sixteen P-1000 heavy anti-ship missiles and eight S-300F anti-aircraft missiles.

On March 24, the Russian vessel “Saratov” was destroyed in the port of Berdyansk. See the detailed analysis of the video featuring the destruction here.