Russian authorities threaten families of crew killed on cruise ship Moskva and force them to keep silent - Ukrainian intelligence

Ukrainska Pravda  — TUESDAY, 7 JUNE 2022, 12:36

A special group of psychologists, doctors and lawyers is working with the relatives of the Russian sailors of the cruiser Moskva, which was hit and sunk. Their main aim is to prevent any leaking of information about the dead and missing Russian conscripts.

Source: Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, Mediazona publication

Quote: "According to the military intelligence of Ukraine, the main goal of the group is to prevent the leaking of information about the dead and missing Russian conscripts. They are trying to persuade relatives not to talk to anyone about their sons and husbands who served on the cruiser. If they refuse, they are threatened with non-payment of compensation and with criminal prosecution."

Details: According to Ukrainian intelligence, during a meeting in occupied Sevastopol between the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and relatives of the dead sailors, the House of Officers was guarded by military police, and the commander himself was accompanied by a group of special forces. Some relatives, in protest, did not come to the meeting with the fleet command.

It later became known, based on the response of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Prosecutor's Office to the request of the mother of the wounded sailor Gulnaz Urazaev, that the military unit 84201, in which the sailors of the Moskva cruiser served, had been included in the list of participants in the "special military operation".

Background:

• On 13 April, Ukrainian authorities reported that they had struck the Russian cruiser Moskva with Neptune missiles.
• On 14 April, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed there had been an explosion on the cruiser, but said that the ammunition on board had detonated, that the crew had been evacuated, and that the cruiser itself "had kept afloat." Then the Russian Ministry said that the Moskva had sunk in a storm while being towed to Sevastopol. 
• Experts estimate that half of the crew were killed or injured. Investigative journalists believe that two-thirds of the crew of the cruise ship Moskva might have consisted of conscripts.
• Relatives of the Moskva crew have been looking for them, but they have been told that the cruiser was not performing a combat mission, and that the soldiers [conscripts] are missing. At the same time, survivors said that the cruiser had been tasked with landing in Odesa.
• On 15 May, the Pivden [South] Operational Command published a recording of communications from the Moskva that took place as the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was sinking.