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The main ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Moscow cruiser, was badly damaged when an on-board ammunition exploded, the Interfax news agency quoted the Russian defense ministry as saying on Thursday.
Interfax said the crew had been evacuated. The agency said the blast had occurred from a fire and that the cause was being investigated.
A Ukrainian official said earlier that Moscow had been hit by two missiles, but gave no evidence.
The ship with a capacity of 12,500 tons has a crew of about 500 people. Russian news agencies reported that Moscow had 16 “Volcano” missiles with a range of at least 700 km.
“As a result of a fire at the Moscow Missile Crossing, ammunition exploded. The ship was badly damaged, “the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. “The crew was completely evacuated.”
Interfax did not provide further details.
Maksym Marchenko, the governor of the region around the port of Odessa in the Black Sea, said earlier in an online post that two missiles had hit the cruiser, but gave no evidence.
Last month Ukraine said it had destroyed a large Russian ship, the Orsk, in the Sea of Azov, northeast of the Black Sea. Moscow has not commented on what happened to the ship./VOA
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