The U.S. officials had taken responsibility for their involvement in the attack on Russia’s Flagship Pride “Moskva” which sank on April 14 despite Russia’s claim of the fire incident was the precursor for the sinking.
Moskva sank on the 14th of April after being struck by two anti-ship missiles from the Ukrainian military led to its sinking, resulting in a great military loss to the Russians, as it stands as the emblem of Russia’s hegemony on the Black Sea.
According to a report from NBC News, U.S. officials narrated their involvement in the sinking of Moskva, by providing them with needed and necessary intelligence which proved fatal and embarrassing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The official narrated how the attack came by, sighting that, the Ukrainian forces enquired from the Americans about a cruiser sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa, which eventually turned out to be Moskva and shared the location with the Ukrainians, which made them targeted the ship.
According to the official, he denied the U.S. involvement in the decision to strike, and that, they didn’t know in advance that Ukraine was going on a hit on Moskva, saying that intelligence was only shared to help Ukraine defend herself against attack from the Russian sea fleet.
Despite the Ukrainian taking responsibility for the attack, the U.S. role was just to provide strategic and maritime intelligence to Ukraine, despite Russia’s insistence on non-interference from the external country.
The report of U.S. involvement in the attack came into the limelight after the Russians debunked any hit by missiles on Moskva.
According to a statement released by the Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, he cleared the air of doubt by saying the “U.S. did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva or any other top military officers of the Russians army, or decide for them on who or not to attack, but they just provided them with intelligence only.”
The sinking of Moskva had reignited a long decade of debate about the vulnerability of ships to attack from missiles or drones, being Russia’s greatest military defeat since the end of World War II.
