The court of the aggressor country of the russian federation has issued a verdict against the commander of the 406th separate artillery brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andrii Shubin, in connection with the sinking of the missile cruiser Moskva, for the first time admitting that the ship was hit by a missile strike.
According to the russian publication Mediazona, the text of the verdict was deleted almost immediately after publication.
The verdict was issued by the 2nd Western District Military Court, located in Moscow. It sentenced Shubin in absentia for the fact that on April 2 and 13, 2022, he "gave orders to his subordinates to launch missile strikes" on the frigate Admiral Essen and the missile cruiser Moskva.
The text states that as a result of the missile strike on April 2, the frigate Admiral Essen was damaged. One of the ship's crew members was injured.
And on April 13, the Ukrainian military fired two missiles at the cruiser Moskva, the explosion of which "caused a fire on the ship with smoke filling the interior." 20 members of the cruiser's crew were killed. 24 russian sailors were injured and traumatized, and eight more crew members went missing.
"However, the emergency team and other crew members failed to save the guards missile cruiser Moskva and it died along with the material resources on it," the text says.
At the same time, the court claims that the frigate Admiral Essen and the cruiser Moskva were allegedly not involved in a "special military operation" (this is what the aggressor country calls a full-scale war against Ukraine).
A russian court found the commander of the 406th brigade guilty of committing an "act of international terrorism." It sentenced Shubin in absentia to life imprisonment and ordered him to pay RUB 2.3 billion to the russian Defense Ministry.
Photo: Mediazona.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in 2025, the Ukrainian Navy told how the occupiers tried to save the cruiser Moskva within hours of the Ukrainian strike.
As a reminder, the Ukrainian Navy stated that the Ukrainian military themselves received the coordinates of the cruiser Moskva and struck the ship without US assistance.
In March 2025, The New York Times wrote that the US was furious when it learned that Ukraine had struck the cruiser Moskva, which led to the death of the ship.
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