These images show how a museum in Ukraine is allowing its visitors to sink a model of the Russian warship ‘Moskva’.
The footage, filmed at the Lviv Museum of Science in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, shows how visitors can repeatedly sink the model of the Moskva, the former flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which was sunk by Ukrainian forces last April.
The Moskva had also taken part in the Snake Island incident, which made international headlines when Ukrainian border guards told Russian naval forces demanding that they surrender on 25th February: “Russian warship, go f**k yourself!”
It was believed for a time that the border guards did not survive the resulting pounding the island suffered from the Russian forces, but it later emerged that they had been taken prisoner, including Roman Hrybov, who had uttered the now iconic phrase.
The Moskva was later damaged by an explosion, on 13th April 2022, the day after Ukraine issued a commemorative stamp featuring Hrybov’s expletive message. Ukraine has also declared the wreck of the ship to be an underwater cultural heritage site.
The Ukrainian military said that the sinking happened after it had hit the warship with two Neptune anti-ship missiles. The Russians, meanwhile, simply said that ammunition stored aboard the vessel had detonated.
The flagship finally sunk the following day while being towed to port in Russian-occupied Crimea.
The site of the wreck was then declared “underwater cultural heritage” in late April 2022.
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine said on 21st April: “The ‘Moskva’ missile cruiser was the flagship of the Russian fleet, and became number 2064 in the register of underwater cultural heritage of Ukraine.”
There were reportedly 485 crew members aboard and a Turkish ship that responded to a distress call saved 54 crew members. Russia initially stated that only one sailor from the Moskva was killed and 27 were missing, but later acknowledged the deaths of a further 17 sailors.
Most of those lost were conscripts, underlined when a Russian recruitment office mistakenly sent conscription papers to a missing Moskva sailor in October 2022.
