Ukraine Sunk the RTS Moskva, With a Lot of Help From Russia

She was a beautiful ship. The operative word is “was”. Now she’s an artificial reef. (dir.md)

The RTS Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, has been sunk. According to Ukrainian sources, they struck the Moskva with two Neptune missiles and sent the Moskva to the bottom of the sea. At first, the Russian news agencies claimed that a fire had broken out and damaged the ship. But it’s hard to claim that a ship hasn’t sunk, and after some time, even the Russian news agencies had to admit the Moskva had been sunk.

Even now, the admiralty of the Russian Navy is rushing to close ranks, to keep up morale in the fleet, to uphold the support of the public, and (most of all) to protect their own careers.

What will they not do? They will not, cannot do what is necessary to prevent the national shame of the loss of a capital ship against a much-inferior foe.

How do we know this? Put simply, tradition.

Yes, that sounds trite and more than a little dismissive of the efforts of a military superpower, but tradition is one of the most important factors in any professional military. And Russia’s embrace of oligarchy and its concomitant corruption nullify all the naval benefits of the proud traditions it had inherited from the Soviet Navy.