The 2nd Western District Military Court in Moscow has issued a verdict in the case concerning the sinking of the cruiser “Moskva” and a strike on the frigate “Admiral Essen” in April 2022. Commander of the 406th Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy, Andriy Shubin, was tried in absentia and sentenced to life in prison under the Russian Criminal Code’s article on international terrorism (Part 3, Article 361). The court acknowledged that 20 crew members were killed in the attack on the cruiser, 24 were wounded, and 8 went missing. A press release containing this information was removed from the court’s website almost immediately after publication, Mediazona noted.
“Twenty crew members of the cruiser died from explosion, fire and smoke; twenty-four crew members sustained injuries of varying severity, and eight people went missing, including during damage-control efforts that lasted more than six hours,” the deleted press release said. One person was wounded aboard the frigate “Admiral Essen,” according to the court.
After the strike, Russia’s Defense Ministry said the cruiser sank as a result of a fire that triggered an ammunition detonation. Ukrainian sources, meanwhile, claimed the ship was struck by two Neptune anti-ship missiles. In the fall of the same year, a court in Sevastopol declared 17 sailors who served on the cruiser dead, based on petitions from the unit commander and parents. Some of those killed were conscripts.
