This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has admitted that one crew member died and 27 are missing as a result of a fire on the Moskva missile cruiser last week.
The remaining 396 crew members were evacuated to other ships of the Black Sea Fleet, Interfax said, quoting a statement from the ministry.
Since the ship sank there have been reports quoting relatives of sailors who served on the cruiser about the dead and missing.
The ministry said that it has been providing assistance to the relatives of the deceased and the missing.
Russia acknowledged on April 14 that the Moskva had sunk, attributing the disaster to a fire that caused ammunition on the ship to detonate.
The ministry claimed that the entire crew of 500 was evacuated from the ship, which Ukraine and the United States said sank after Ukrainian forces hit the vessel on April 13 with at least one Neptune missile.
A senior Pentagon official said on April 15 that the loss of the ship was a “big blow” for Moscow. The official said then that the strike was believed to have caused casualties, but it was difficult to assess how many.
