A military court in Moscow has, for the first time, confirmed that 20 sailors lost their lives in a Ukrainian missile attack on the flagship of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet nearly four years ago.

The cruiser Moskva sank in April 2022 off the southern coast of Ukraine, which marked a significant humiliation for the Russian military. Initially, officials claimed that the warship sank due to rough seas while being towed to shore for repairs after a fire ignited by munitions detonation.

On Thursday, the Second Western District Military Court in Moscow sentenced Andriy Shubin, a Ukrainian Navy brigade commander, to life imprisonment in absentia, after convicting him of terrorism linked to the sinking of the Moskva and another Russian naval vessel, as reported by the exiled news agency Mediazona.

The court indicated that two Ukrainian missiles hit the Moskva, igniting a fire on board and filling its internal compartments with smoke. Ukraine had previously stated that it utilized two Neptune anti-ship missiles to target the cruiser.

This was the first instance where Russia accepted that a missile strike caused the sinking.

In a press release that was later removed from the court’s website, it was confirmed that 20 crew members aboard the Moskva perished due to the attack, while another 24 were injured. Eight sailors remain unaccounted for, according to the statement.

“During a six-hour ‘struggle for ship survivability’, these losses were incurred,” said a screenshot of the release shared by Mediazona.

Russia’s Defense Ministry had previously only acknowledged one death from the sinking of the Moskva, noting that 27 sailors were reported missing in the incident. A court in Russian-occupied Crimea had previously ruled in November 2022 that 17 of the missing crew members were deceased.

In 2024, a memorial honoring 19 sailors who died in the sinking of the Moskva was unveiled at the headquarters of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea.