A Ukrainian missile strike on the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has caused major damage to the vessel, sparking a fire on board the Moskva naval cruiser and forcing the evacuation of its 500-member crew, according to multiple news reports Thursday.

“It has been confirmed that the missile cruiser Moskva today went exactly where it was sent by our border guards on Snake Island. Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage to the Russian ship,” the head of the Odessa regional military administration, Maksym Marchenko, announced on his Telegram, adding, “Glory to Ukraine.”

The ship gained notoriety early in the war when border guards on Ukraine’s tiny Snake Island responded to the Russian warship’s crew command for them to surrender by telling them to “go f— yourself.”

Ukraine’s hit on such a ship is tantamount to putting an American aircraft carrier out of commission. Even the name, translated as Moscow, is symbolic; this is without a doubt Kyiv punching the Kremlin at sea. 

Russia’s defense ministry said the Moskva missile cruiser had been badly damaged after ammunition on board was blown up in the fire, the Tass news agency. According to Ukrinform, the Russian cruiser is part of the 30th Surface Ship Division of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. 

Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles are apparently Ukrainian made and the Moskva is the second Russian warship known to have suffered significant damage since the war began. Last month Ukraine said it had destroyed a landing support ship, the Orsk, on the smaller Sea of Azov. The Moskva is a much fiercer beast. 

Russian news agencies said the ship, commissioned in 1983, was armed with 16 anti-ship Vulkan cruise missiles with a range of at least 435 miles. Designed for strikes against large surface enemy ships, the vessel is meant to ensure the combat stability of naval anti-submarine groups, with other tasks including air defense of remote formations and fire support for landings, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

As of Thursday morning, and in part because of storms that obscured satellite imagery, it was not clear if the abandoned ship was floating in the Black Sea or had sunk. A tweet this morning from a presidential advisor, Oleksiy Arestovych, points to the latter scenario, though it could not be confirmed. 

Russia’s navy has launched cruise missiles into Ukraine and its activities in the Black Sea are crucial to supporting land operations in the southern part of the country, where it is battling to seize full control of the port of Mariupol. Yesterday Moscow threatened to strike command centers in Kyiv if Ukraine continues to launch attacks on Russian soil. 

It was not immediately clear what kind of response the attack on the Moskva, which is not on Russian soil but is clearly a prized national asset, would trigger from the Kremlin, if any. 

Two-thirds of the residents of Kyiv have already returned home, but the city’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, said it is still recommended they wait due to the threat of rocket fire. “We are following the recommendations of the military, and they say that today the threat is quite high, including rocket fire. Another threat is the demining of the surrounding areas, where, unfortunately, several people died as a result of explosions,” Mr. Klitschko said on Wednesday.

The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, says that Russia’s bombing of the city has increased significantly. Hostilities in disparate parts of Ukraine are obviously interconnected as the war enters its seventh week and Moscow presses forward with its campaign in the east and south, and Ukrainian forces bolstered by Western arms deliveries gird for more battle. 

America has already supplied more than 12,000 weapons designed to defeat armored vehicles, 1,400 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to shoot down aircraft, and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition, among many other things, the AP reported, and dozens of other nations are adding to the totals. 

To boost Ukraine’s fight even more, President Biden has announced an $800 million military aid package that will include helicopters and armored personnel carriers. 

Earlier this week the American president called the Russian president’s warmongering in Ukraine genocide, saying that Vladimir Putin “is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian.” Not everyone shares that view; the French president, Emmanuel Macron, countered that an “escalation of words” would not elicit peace and said that Ukrainians and Russians are “brotherly people.”

Mr. Macron’s interesting choice of words drew a sharp response from the spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, Oleh Nikolenko, who said: “‘Brotherly’ people don’t kill children, don’t shoot civilians, don’t rape women, don’t mutilate the elderly, and don’t destroy the homes of other ‘brotherly’ people. Even the fiercest enemies don’t commit atrocities against defenseless people.”