Ukraine claims to have caused ‘serious damage’ after striking Russian flagship

Ukrainian officials say they have caused “serious damage” to the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

The Odesa region’s governor Maksym Marchenko said forces struck the Russian guided-missile cruiser Moskva with two missiles and caused “serious damage”.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the ship was damaged, but not that it was hit by Ukraine.

The ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire whose causes “were being established”, adding that the Moskva’s entire crew was evacuated.

Earlier, President Joe Biden approved 800 million dollars (£610m) in military assistance for Ukraine, including artillery and helicopters, to bolster its defences against a Russian offensive in the country’s east.

Mr Biden announced the aid after a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate the delivery of the assistance, which he said included artillery systems, artillery rounds and armoured personnel carriers, as well as helicopters.

“This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine,” Mr Biden said.

He added that the US will continue to work with allies to share additional weapons and resources as the conflict continues.

Mr Biden is under pressure from members of both parties in Congress to expand and accelerate US aid.

Robert Gates, a former CIA director and defence secretary, said he believes the administration needs to push hard for weapon donations by Nato members in Eastern Europe, whose arsenals include Soviet-era tanks and other weaponry and equipment that could help Ukraine immediately.

“The United States ought to be acting, 24/7 — how do we mobilise the equipment and how do we get it into Ukraine and into the hands of the Ukrainians,” Mr Gates said in an online forum sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“It’s critically important and critically urgent, and we ought to be sort of ransacking the arsenals of those states, and I think they would be cooperative, particularly” if they are given assurances that the Pentagon will provide American replacements for the donated weapons.”