The sinking of the Moskva in the Black Sea is a foundational event whose story corresponds with the overall performance of the Russian army in its war against Ukraine.
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The Moskva is a large and impressive missile cruiser that was built to serve in the Soviet Navy more than 40 years ago. Originally called the Slava, its name was later changed to Moskva. With propulsion of 12,000 tons (10 times that of the Israeli Sa'ar 5), the Moskva was equipped with various combat systems, primarily missiles that can hit other ships, as well as aircraft and land-based targets.
The Moskva was the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and a symbol of Russian naval supremacy in the Black Sea. It enabled the Russians to impose a naval siege on Ukraine and prevent it from exporting and importing goods from its ports on the eastern side of the Black Sea, in particular Odesa.
The sinking of the ship with a Neptune missile – as the Ukrainians claim – is a huge success for Ukraine's Navy, which relies mainly on ground-to-sea capabilities. The Neptune missile was developed by the Ukrainian military industries and, ironically, is based on a Russian missile (the KH35).
Several nations are currently developing supersonic and hypersonic missiles, which are super-fast missiles – up to five times the speed of sound – but the Neptune, despite being a relatively old subsonic missile, (below the speed of sound) still managed to hit and sink the Moskva.
The Russian Navy, like the Russian army, is a very old navy with ships built to serve in the navy of the Soviet Union. They were very advanced for their time, but over the years, due to insufficient budgets, the Russian Navy's capabilities have eroded, just like those of the Russian army. It has become a navy that relies on its past capabilities. The Russian Navy, like the entire Russian army, needs a thorough revamp at a huge cost to modernize and be able to deal with the challenges of tomorrow.
The sinking of the Moskva points to its poor state of maintenance. Partition of hulls could have prevented it being sunk. The INS Hanit, which was hit by a coastal missile during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, suffered severe damage but didn't sink, thanks to its advanced partitions that prevented the fire that destroyed one hull from spreading to the others.
The sinking of the Moskva is a painful blow to the Russian Navy and the Russian army. It tells the story of a large, old, and cumbersome army that is not mission-ready, and has failed to defeat the smaller but determined Ukrainian military, which is fighting with belief in its path and has succeeded over and again in embarrassing the army of a supposed power that – on paper – should have defeated it within days.
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