In occupied Sevastopol, a memorial to the sailors of the cruiser Moscow was secretly opened – the captain and relatives of the victims were not invited to the ceremony

A monument to the sailors of the sunken cruiser Moskva was unveiled in annexed Sevastopol. The captain, crew members and some of the relatives of the victims were not invited to the ceremony. The cruiser sank in April 2022 after being attacked by Ukrainian Neptune missiles. The Russian Ministry of Defense hid this for a long time, claiming that on the night of April 14 there was a fire and “detonation of ammunition” on board the cruiser, but the cruiser “remains buoyant.” The Telegram channel “Agency. News” writes about this.

The father of the sailor who died on the Moskva, Dmitry Shkrabets, announced that a monument was unveiled in occupied Sevastopol. According to Shkrebets, the monument is dedicated to the sailors of the 30th division of surface ships who died during the Russian-Ukrainian war. These are mainly members of the last crew of the cruiser Moskva, Shkrabets noted.

According to him, the memorial was erected on the second anniversary of the death of the cruiser and is located opposite the place in the harbor where it was usually moored.

The opening ceremony was attended by the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Sergei Pinchuk. But it is interesting that the crew members of the cruiser and the captain of the ship, Anton Kuprin, were not invited to the event. Many received an invitation the day before and did not have time to arrive, the opening time was shifted several times, and those who did attend were prohibited from bringing in phones. So there are no photos of the memorial on social networks.

About the cruiser “Moscow”

The cruiser “Moskva” sank on April 14, 2022. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that a fire broke out on the cruiser, then they reported that the ship sank while being towed to the port.

The deaths were not reported until April 22. Then the Russian Ministry of Defense announced one dead and 27 missing, while claiming that 396 sailors were saved, and almost all the officers would continue to serve in the Black Sea Fleet. There was even a video recorded of supposed survivors.

Dmitry Shkrebets, a resident of Yalta, whose son Yegor Shkrebets was a conscript sailor on a cruiser and served as a cook, did not believe the official information and began posting news online on his own. He claimed that rescue work on the cruiser was not really carried out, the SOS signal was not given for a long time, and the seriously wounded were not rescued. And all this was done in order to hide the fact that the flagship was hit by missiles. He also wrote that the cruiser had no cover and did not change its location for a long time. According to Shkrebets, the officers were the first to escape, leaving the sailors, including conscripts, to die.

The speaker of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Dmitry Pletenchuk, a day earlier, told new details about the sinking of the cruiser “Moskva”. According to him, the crew members were confident in their integrity and underestimated the Ukrainian army.