Photos of the sunken Moskva: a hole at the waterline

A hole below the bridge: photos of the sunken Moskva

The first image of the cruiser Moskva after its sinking leaves a picture of scrap more than combat loss: the ship listing, columns of black smoke spread along the side and a jet of water that, when the photo is enlarged, seems to point away from the fire. Around it, a sea like a millpond. It was circulated by an account tracking conflicts and markets, which laid both versions on the table: a hit from two R-360 Neptun missiles or a catastrophic fire in the ammunition magazine. “You decide,” it concluded.

Before discussing causes, the first thing that stands out is the damage. And here the images are quite eloquent.

What can be seen in the images of the Moskva?

The hull appears tilted and with a hole at the waterline, just below the bridge, with the metal bent inward. Along the side are patches of smoke that some read as coming from internal fires, coinciding with the ship's portholes, and not as missile impacts. The black smoke was already visible before, another reading of the same photos maintains.

Identification leaves no doubt: a 189-metre cruiser with missile launchers, a helipad and S-300 ramps is not easily mistaken. The list, with a large hole through which water enters, would explain why the ship went down in little time.

Did it sink in a storm or from an impact?

The sea in the images is calm. That is the sustancia ilegal through which scepticism seeps: the version attributing the loss to a fierce storm does not square with a flat surface and a dry deck. The dominant suspicion is that the storm serves to cover up an internal failure, whether a missile impact or a fire that spread where it should not have.

The operation also jars. In one of the shots, a jet of water is seen pointing in the opposite direction from the fire, something that does not exactly inspire confidence in the handling of the emergency. Those defending the internal thesis recall that the round patches correspond to the portholes, not to projectile peine.

A flagship as old as your grandfather

The Moskva was the flagship of the Russian Navy since 2000, but its design dates back to the late 1960s. Construction began in 1976, was completed in 1979 and it entered service in the early 1980s. Depending on which date you count from, the ship was between 40 and 46 years old at the time of its loss.

That detail changes the tone of the matter. If the design is from another era, even if its offensive missiles had been changed in 2002, its air defence was still the original. The full calculation, starting from each possible entry-into-service date, gives a range that surprises anyone expecting scrap fresh from the shipyard. Sinking a latest-generation vessel is not the same as one with more years than many of those now commenting on the war.

Why a modern cruiser sinks from a single hole

The answer lies in the armour. Today's warships carry very little protective steel: they stake almost everything on electronic defences and anti-missile missiles, and as a last barrier they place point-defence systems that saturate the air with machine guns and rapid-fire cannon. Thick armour was left behind. It is argued that the last great armoured battleship was the British Vanguard, and that the Second World War taught that no armour stops an air attack.

Hence the comparison with the Titanic keeps returning: a ship does not break from the impact itself, it breaks when the weight of incoming water lifts the stern, the keel cannot take it and gives way. In the end, water sinks ships, always.

The tug and doubts about the crew

Later photos show a rescue tug, the Shakhter (SB-922), alongside the cruiser. That detail dismantles two things: that no one came to the rescue and that the ship's condition allowed it to be towed. A listing, half-sunken hull is not a load easily taken to port.

The uncomfortable question remains: if someone could photograph the scene from a railing a hundred metres away, why were more crew members not rescued? The official figure is missing. Alongside the technical discussion lives the human residue, with messages demanding we not forget that there were living people there, fighting for interests that were not their own.

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The trail of the images points to the same place: the hole at the waterline, the tug made fast and a sea without waves. Whether it was a missile or an internal fire remains unresolved, but the storm does not appear anywhere in the photos.