The whys and wherefores of the attack on the Moskva

AFULLER VERSION OF YESTERDAY's BLOG: The vital intelligence role the US played in the devastating missile attack launched by Ukraine against Russia’s flagship cruiser in the Black Sea last month has been revealed for the first time. The guided-missile cruiser, Moskva, was hit by two Ukrainian truck-launched Neptune anti-ship missiles on April 13 and sank the following day with an estimated 200-250 crew members losing their lives. It was the most symbolic blow to President Putin’s war aims since the invasion on February 24. US intelligence identifying the Moskva as it sailed about 65 nautical miles off the coast of Ukraine south of Odesa was provided just hours before the attack, according to American sources. The revelation appeared to undermine previous statements that the US did not participate in the Moskva strike in any way. Officials had also denied the implication in a report in The Times last month that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft flying over the Black Sea the same day as the attack may have had a role. US defence officials said it was a routine patrol along the coast off Romania. US sources familiar with the background to the strike told The Times last night that Ukraine had spotted a large Russian warship in the Black Sea, well within reach of the Neptune systems which have a maximum firing range of about 174 miles. Evidence of the warship had been provided by Turkey-supplied Bayraktar TB2 surveillance drones which had sent back images while flying at a high altitude near the Moskva. The drones were not targeted by the 11,490-ton Slava-class cruiser, despite its array of surface-to-air missiles, guns and close-in weapon systems. The US sources said the Ukrainian military wanted to be sure it was the Moskva which had posed a significant threat to Ukraine because of its armoury of 440-mile-range land-attack cruise missiles. That was when Kyiv used its special communications channel to the US military, seeking confirmation. “The Ukrainians are able to detect and track ships in the Black Sea with their own intelligence capabilities. But on that occasion they reached out to the US to confirm that it was the Moskva and we confirmed it,” the sources said. “But we were not involved in the decision to strike the ship nor were we involved in the operation itself. So it was not a situation where the Ukrainians said to us ‘we’re about to hit the Moskva and can you confirm it is the Moskva’. We confirmed it but they were going to do their own thing.,” the sources said. A US official added: “We do provide a range of intelligence about the threat posed to Ukraine from Russian ships in the Black Sea but we don’t provide target information on ships. They have their own capabilities. “We consider that intelligence we are giving is defensive in nature because the ships are close to Ukraine and pose a threat not just to the coastal cities but to the whole of Ukraine because of their long-range missiles. “On the question of the Moskva we didn’t provide specific target information, we were not involved in Ukraine’s decision to target the Moskva and we had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s intent to strike the ship.” The official said he could not disclose how the presence of the cruiser had been confirmed by US intelligence. The Poseidon surveillance aircraft which has been flying regular sorties in the region as part of defensive measures to protect Nato members in eastern Europe is equipped with a range of search and tracking systems including an acoustic sensor that can identify the signature of a particular ship. Other US surveillance aircraft known to engage in regular patrols in the region include the long-range Global Hawk drone and the RC-135 Rivet Joint, both of which have extensive intelligence-gathering capabilities. Underlying the indirect role the US played in helping the Ukrainians identify the Moskva, John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, said: “We did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva. The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case.” A senior US defence official said: “We do provide a range of intelligence to help the Ukrainians understand the threat posed by Russian ships in the Black Sea and to help them prepare to defend against potential sea-based assaults. Many of the missiles fired at Ukraine have come from Russian ships in the Black Sea, and those ships could be used to support an assault on cities like Odesa.” The issue of the US providing intelligence for Ukraine’s defence against the Russian forces has become more controversial as the war has continued. This week the Pentagon had to intervene to deny reports that US intelligence had specifically helped the Ukrainians to target individual Russian generals who had come to the frontlines of the war to try and improve combat operations and logistic support. About a dozen generals are known to have been killed. American agencies “do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the Ukraine military,” Kirby said. “Ukraine combines information that we and other partners provide with the intel that they themselves are gathering and then they make their own decisions and they take their own actions,” he said.