Russia's Flagship Sinks: Biggest Setback To Putin? - 'Hot Mic' With Nidhi Razdan

Russia Ukraine War: Russia has suffered a series of military setbacks in recent weeks. The biggest was the sinking of the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva. But how much does it actually hurt Putin?

Hi,

This is Hot Mic and I'm Nidhi Razdan.

It's been more than 50 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. Vladimir Putin believed he would get Kyiv to surrender within five days Things clearly have not quite turned out the way he had hoped. Russia has suffered a series of military setbacks in recent weeks. The biggest was the sinking of its flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva, last week, which now lies at the bottom of the sea. The 600-foot, 12,500-tonne vessel is by no means small. Ukraine says that it destroyed the ship with its state-of-the-art Neptune missiles. Russia, however, claims that the vessel went down because of a fire on board, which involved ammunition stored in the hull. Either way, the sinking of the Moskva is a significant event. Equipped with surface-to-air missiles, the ship provided long-range and mobile air defence for all of Russia's fleet in the Black Sea.