Russia To Tow Stricken Warship To Port After What Ukraine Says Was Missile Hit

Russia said the crew of its Moskva warship were evacuated on Thursday after an explosion of ammunition aboard that Ukraine said was caused by a missile strike, and a U.S. defence official said the stricken vessel was still trying to put out a fire.

The warship, a Soviet-era missile cruiser, is still believed afloat and the United States is under the assumption that the cruiser is heading to Sevastopol, the senior U.S. official said.

"Our assessment is that she still appears to be battling a fire on board," the official added.

Russia's defence ministry said the fire on the vessel, its Black Sea fleet flagship, had been contained but left the ship badly damaged. It did not acknowledge the ship, which had more than 500 sailors aboard, had been attacked and said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

Ukraine's southern military command said it hit the warship with a Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile and that it had started to sink.

Reuters was unable to verify any of the various statements about the ship.

The United States said it did not have enough information to determine whether the ship was hit by a missile.

"We don't have the capacity at this point to independently verify that but certainly, the way this unfolded, it's a big blow to Russia," said national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The Moslva's loss or disabling would be another hit to Russia's stuttering campaign - on the 50th day of its war in Ukraine - as it readies for a new assault in the eastern Donbas region that is likely to define the conflict's outcome.

Russian forces have pulled back from some northern parts of Ukraine after suffering heavy losses and failing to take the capital Kyiv. Ukraine and its Western allies say Moscow is redeploying for a new offensive.

"Russian forces are increasing their activities on the southern and eastern fronts, attempting to avenge their defeats," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Wednesday night video address.

Russia's navy has fired cruise missiles into Ukraine and its Black Sea activities are crucial to supporting land operations in the south of the country, where it is battling to seize full control of the port of Mariupol after weeks of bombardment.

Russian news agencies said the Moskva, commissioned in 1983, was armed with 16 anti-ship Vulkan cruise missiles with a range of at least 700 km (440 miles).

Kyiv says the Moskva featured in one of the landmark early exchanges of the war, when Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island, a small outcrop in the Black Sea, told the ship to "Go fuck yourself" after it demanded they surrender.

'MASSING TROOPS'

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said Russia was massing troops not only along the Russia-Ukraine border, but also in Belarus and Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region. Moldova's government separately accused Russia's army of trying to recruit Moldovans. Moscow's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Authorities in Transdniestria, which borders southern Ukraine, on Monday denied Russia was preparing forces there to threaten Ukraine.

The Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions in the country's east were being hit by missile strikes, Malyar said.

Kharkiv's governor said shelling killed four civilians.

Russian officials said Ukrainian helicopters had hit residential buildings and injured seven people in the Bryansk region, the latest of a series of cross-border attacks that Moscow has said may trigger a retaliatory attack on Kyiv.

The governor of the Belgorod region said a village there was also attacked, but that no one was wounded. Neither side's statements could be independently verified and Ukraine's military did not respond to requests for comment.

Russia said on Wednesday more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines from one of the units still holding out in the shattered city of Mariupol had surrendered. Ukrainian officials did not comment.

If taken, it would be the first major city to fall to Russian forces since they invaded on Feb. 24, allowing Russia to reinforce a land corridor between separatist-held eastern areas and the Crimea region it seized and annexed in 2014.

'FORGIVE US'

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed on for Thursday to evacuate civilians, including by private car, from Mariupol.

Ukraine says tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the city.

Mariupol's mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said Russia had brought in mobile crematoria "to get rid of evidence of war crimes" - a statement that it was not possible to verify independently.

Moscow has blamed Ukraine for civilian deaths and accused Kyiv of denigrating Russian armed forces.

In the village of Lubianka northwest of Kyiv, from where Russian forces had tried and failed to subdue the capital before retreating, a message to Ukrainians had been written on the wall of a house that had been occupied by Russian troops.

"We did not want this ... forgive us," it said.

The Kremlin says it launched a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "liberate" Ukraine from nationalist extremists, a message villagers said had been repeated to them by the Russian troops.

"To liberate us from what? We're peaceful ... We're Ukrainians," Lubianka resident Viktor Shaposhnikov said.

Andriy Nyebytov, head of the Kyiv region police, said more than 800 bodies had been found in three districts which had been occupied by Russian forces.

"We are finding terrible things: buried and hidden bodies of people who were tortured and shot, and who died as a result of mortar and artillery fire," Nyebytov said in televised comments. His statements could not immediately be verified.

Ukraine's human rights ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that according to preliminary information, more than 700 people had been killed in the northern city of Chernihiv during the invasion. It was not possible to verify the assertion independently.

Russia has denied attacking civilians and said some reports have been staged for propaganda purposes.

RUSSIA ISOLATED

Moscow's incursion, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has seen more than 4.6 million people flee abroad, killed or wounded thousands and raised fears of conflict between Russia and the United States, the world's top nuclear powers.

Western-led sanctions have triggered the worst economic crisis in Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, say analysts.

The conflict has also galvanised NATO and prompted Russia's neighbours Sweden and Finland to discuss joining the Western military alliance.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, warned that such a move would force Russia to boost its defences in the Baltic region, including with nuclear weapons.