Inside The Moskva, Russia's Largest Warship Reportedly Damaged By Ukrainian Forces

This is what it's like inside Moskva, Russia's largest warship that has been damaged by Ukrainian forces amid the ongoing war.

It was reported on Wednesday that the Moskva had been hit by Ukrainian forces. The colossal vessel weighs 12,500 tonnes and is packing ‘enough missiles to wipe out Ukraine’s navy’.

On Wednesday night, James Longman, ABC News’ foreign correspondent, tweeted that Ukraine had caused ‘severe damage’ to the Russian navy cruiser.

He tweeted: “Ukraine may have hit a Russian ship in the Black Sea. The Moskva, perhaps Putin’s most powerful. A councillor to President Zelenskyy says it’s ‘on fire somewhere in the black sea’.”

He wrote in a follow-up tweet: “Head of the Odesa military-civil administration Oleksiy Marchenko [said]: ‘Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused severe damage to the Russian ship.’’’

Alamy

Back in January, Forbes ran a feature on the Moskva, offering a deep-dive into its heavy-duty infrastructure. 

The outlet billed Moskva as being ‘by far is the most powerful warship in the Black Sea’ and predicted that the cruiser would one day be at the forefront of Putin’s naval assault on Ukraine. 

Moskva has almost 500 people on board at any given time and spans a whopping 612 feet.

The ship is kitted out with a terrifying amount of firepower, which the outlet lists as follows: “16 fixed launchers for P-1000 anti-ship missiles with a range of 300 miles, vertical tubes for 64 S-300 air-defence missiles with a range of 56 miles, rail launchers for 40 Osa missiles for aerial self-defence plus a bevy of guns—twin 130-millimetre guns that can hit targets 15 miles away plus self-defence guns.”

Forbes adds that Moskva is also packing ‘torpedo tubes and a helicopter’.

Alamy

Commissioned back in 1982, Moskva’s radars have a 200-mile radius and the ship spearheaded Russia’s naval assault on the Republic of Georgia in 2008.

Moskva’s other notable military excursions include a stationing at Donuzlav Bay during Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and deployment to the Syrian coast in 2015 to protect Russia’s troops from sea and air assaults. 

Moskva underwent three years of maintenance starting in 2016 and the ship had its P-500s anti-ship missiles replaced with more effective P-1000s.

David Axe, author of the Forbes article, wrote that ‘Ukraine’s fleet is powerless to resist Moskva missiles’, making Wednesday’s reports of Ukraine’s assault on the titan ship all the more interesting. 

Axe added: “The only Ukrainian forces that might have any realistic shot at Moskva are the new Neptune anti-ship missile batteries. The stealthy, radar-guided Neptune can strike ships as far away as 175 miles.”