’World war 3 has begun,’ claims Russian state media as Moskva warship sinks

The ongoing invasion of Ukraine has “escalated into World War III”, a Russian television declared today after a Russian warship Moskva sank in the Black Sea due to a massive blow. Presenter Olga Skabeyeva of Rossiya 1 stressed that Russia was fighting against NATO infrastructure.

The presenter said, “One can safely call what it has escalated into World War Three. That’s absolutely for sure. Right now, we’re definitely fighting against NATO infrastructure, if not NATO itself. We need to recognise that.”

After Ukraine’s two Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit 529-crew Moskva, the warship sank. However, Russia denied this claim and stated that Moskva suffered damage from an accidental fire and ammunition explosion.

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that some 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and about 10,000 were injured in the course of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.

"As to our military, out of the numbers we have, we think that we have lost 2,500 to 3,000... We have about 10,000 injured. It is hard to say how many will survive," Zelenskyy told CNN.

Zelenskyy found it difficult to name the number of civilian casualties due to a lack of information from the "blocked" territories in the south and east of Ukraine.