Moscow admits Black Sea fleet flagship ‘seriously damaged’

ODESSA, Ukraine: Ukraine claimed on Thursday to have hit Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea with missiles, igniting a fire that Moscow said had "seriously damaged" the key warship, as Kyiv pushed to restart civilian evacuations from the war zone ahead of a feared major offensive.

The guided missile cruiser Moskva, previously deployed in the Syria conflict, has been leading Moscow’s naval effort to pummel Ukraine’s southern coasts and interior in the nearly seven-week conflict that has sparked accusations of genocide by US President Joe Biden. Evacuations of civilians were to resume on Thursday from nine routes in Ukraine’s east and south, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said after a day-long pause that Kyiv blamed on Russian shelling.

"Humanitarian corridors in the Lugansk region will be run under the condition of cessation of shelling by the occupying forces," she said. More than 4.7 million Ukrainians have fled their country in the 50 days since Russia invaded, the United Nations said.

Russian state media made no mention of any missile strike when quoting the defence ministry as saying ammunition detonated on the Moskva after a fire broke out and "the ship was seriously damaged". It said the crew had evacuated. Two officials in Odessa -- a critical port for Ukraine both for commerce and defence -- confirmed that Ukrainian forces had struck the ship.

"The cause of the ‘serious damage’ was ‘Neptune’ domestic cruise missiles," said Odessa military administration spokesman Sergey Bratchuk on Telegram. Odessa’s governor published a similar dispatch.