There are still no signs that the Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, sank in stormy seas last Thursday.

That's how the Defense Ministry in Moscow put it - not outright denying reports that the heavily armed missile cruiser had been hit by two Ukrainian "Neptune" anti-ship missiles, but presenting an alternative version of events that included an explosion of ammunition board began.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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However, observers point out that at the time in question no storm churned up the north-western part of the Black Sea.

So far, Moscow has not provided any information about seafarers who were killed or injured in the incident or who have since gone missing.

Rather, it was officially said that the entire crew - probably around 500 men - had been taken off the ship.

"That's a lie!

A mean and cynical lie!” wrote Dmitry Shkrebez on the Russian social network VKontakte on Sunday.

His son Yegor was drafted into military service in June last year in Yalta - a port city in the south of the Ukrainian Crimea annexed by Russia - and did this on the Moskva River, as a cook, it was said.

Journalists came across an article in a naval newspaper from last December, in which Yegor Shkrebez is mentioned by name and photo as the ship's cook on the Moskva.

His son, Schkrebez wrote, was put on a list of those who disappeared without a trace after “the tragedy about which we have yet to find out the truth”.

parents speak

Shkrebez alluded to a promise made by President Vladimir Putin, who, after numerous reports of Russian conscripts captured in Ukraine, said at the beginning of March that such and reservists would not serve in the war or, as the Kremlin called it, "special military operations" in the used in Ukraine.

With regard to the Navy, there is also an official statement from 2017 that no conscripts will be deployed on warships.

Shkrebez asked for his Vkontakte post to be shared, which, like a previous one, will surely be deleted, and wrote that he would devote his future life to helping the truth prevail.

"A man who has had his son taken away in such a mean way is not afraid of anything."

Russian journalists also found a post from a St. Petersburg resident on VKontakte about another conscript, Mark Tarasov, who served on the Moskva River and is now believed to be missing.

Ukrainian journalists reported a post in honor of Ensign Ivan Vakhrushev who was killed on the Moskva River;

his wife confirmed to them that her husband had died on the Moskva and said 27 crew members were missing.

The regime-critical newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", which has recently been published online with a "Europe" edition after being discontinued in Russia, published a report on Sunday by a Russian woman whose son also served as a conscript on the Moskva River.

It is written under the protection of anonymity, obviously for fear of prosecution.

The woman said her son survived, calling her last Friday and tearfully telling that the rocket attack, carried out from mainland Ukraine, killed "around 40 people", wounded "a great number" and "some" disappeared be.

Limbs of the wounded were torn off by explosions, on the one hand by the impact of the rockets, on the other hand by "what detonated".

This would indicate that after the impact of the "Neptune" rockets on board there was an explosion of ammunition and a fire.

This is also supported by recordings that have been circulating on social media since Sunday;

they are supposed to show the Moskva doomed to sinking, in calm seas and with billowing deep black smoke.

Funeral arrangement dedicated to "the boat and the sailors".

Although there are no official confirmations, a mourning ceremony was dedicated to "the boat and the sailors" at a farewell ceremony in Sevastopol last Friday.

In addition, a Russian attack hit the armaments factory near Kyiv, where the "Neptune" rockets were manufactured.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday released images of a meeting between Russian Navy Commander Nikolay Yevmenov and men in black sailor uniforms who are crew members of the Moskva River.

It was said that the crew was in Sevastopol, the home port of the Moskva in Crimea.

However, journalists estimated the number of sailors filmed at only 100 to 150;

where the rest were remained unclear.

Yevmenov said in the recordings that draftees under the occupation would be released in May and June, as required by law.

This, too, contradicts Putin's promise not to use conscripts against Ukraine.

That should help the Kremlin to put up a kind of firewall between the president and the end of the flagship.

Especially since the process raises many questions about the Moskva's air defenses.

On Monday, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said of the footage, which appears to show the burning Moskva: "Yes, we have actually seen these images, but we cannot say to what extent they are authentic and correspond to reality."