What happened on 13 April 2022 in Ukraine?

What did the war in Ukraine look like on 13 April 2022? It was a day in which a Russian flagship caught fire in the Black Sea, Washington promised more weapons, Moscow issued fresh threats, and four Baltic and Polish leaders travelled to Kyiv.

The Moskva ablaze

The most striking event at sea involved the cruiser Moskva. The Ukrainian military said it had struck the ship with Neptune anti-ship missiles, hours after the warship had been reported to be on fire in the Black Sea. Ukrainian officials and the US Department of Defense said two Neptune cruise missiles had hit it.

The Russian defence ministry gave a different account. According to Russian state media, the ministry said the cruiser had been evacuated after a fire on board set off ammunition and seriously damaged the vessel. Both sides agreed that the warship had indeed caught fire.

Moskva, formerly named Slava, was a guided missile cruiser commissioned in 1983 and the lead ship of the Project 1164 Atlant class. With a crew of 510, she served as flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.

More arms from Washington

The United States said it was sending an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine. The package included heavy weapons: artillery systems and rounds, armoured personnel carriers, Mi-17 helicopters transferred from Afghanistan, 300 Switchblade drones and unmanned surface vehicles for coastal defence.

Russia responded with warnings. Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said US and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory were legal military targets.

Threats against Kyiv

The Russian defence ministry also said it would begin to target Ukrainian decision-makers, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and command centres in the capital if Ukrainian forces continued to attack Russian territory.

The same day, the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (Andrzej Duda, Gitanas Nausėda, Egils Levits and Alar Karis) arrived in Kyiv and met Zelenskyy.

Fighting on the ground

In the north-east, the governor of Kharkiv Oblast, Oleh Synyehubov, said seven people had been killed and 22 injured in the oblast over the previous 24 hours.

At Mariupol, the Russian defence ministry claimed that around 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered. Ukraine made no comment.

Words of condemnation

The previous day, 12 April, US President Joe Biden had called the Russian war in Ukraine a genocide. On 13 April, Colombian president Iván Duque said in an interview that what was happening in Ukraine was genocide and must stop, calling it madness. This came after Colombia increased energy production to help meet Western demand once all supplies from Russia had been cut off.

Also on 12 April, President Zelenskyy reported on Telegram that Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and oligarch, had been detained in a Security Service of Ukraine special operation. Zelenskyy said he planned to use Medvedchuk in a future exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war. Ukraine's postal service, Ukrposhta, also issued a stamp that day depicting the attack on Snake Island, where Ukrainian troops refused to surrender.