for something else. one of the warships that happened at snake island, when the russians demanded ukrainian soldiers surrender or be bombed and the ukrainian soldier said this. [ bleep ] i want to bring in cnn military analyst, lieutenant general mark hurtling, good to see you. thank you so much for joining us. good to see you, don. cnn is still trying to verify what happened to this warship. what would it mean if ukraine did hit this ship? it would be a pretty good tactical victory, don. we re talking about first of all, the ukrainian intelligence service reported it first in terms of striking it with a neptune missile. now, a neptune is a ukrainian developed land-based antiship missile. i don t think the russians knew that this was a capability to ukraine, and the fact that the ukrainians were reporting it first and then it was only later that russia claimed that there was a fire in one of their
lying, they know we know they re lying but they still they lie. so i actually think that the ukrainians did take this down with a neptune missile. and possibly at great loss of life. not evacuated crew members. and what does it mean in terms of ukraine s ability to operate in that region? yeah, it s just significantly increase you think the ships that are in the harbor, they re in the harbor basin as they can be seen from odessa. that they re going to stay back. not only do facilities provide naval can support to the troops within the coastal area and further in. it ll greatly help, it s a huge win and it ll push the shifts back further and hopefully they can take more down. and pentagon spokesperson john kirby said that this new shipment of, this new 100 million that president biden spoke with presidency about
fire is. but both sides seem to be agreeing that that ship is out of this war. yeah, i think it s huge lawrence. i mean it would be the biggest loss of the russians since they lost the war for kyiv. and there s one thing that i find interesting, the russians have lied more than they told the truth. and it s a really funny thing that i like that the russians are lying, we know they re lying, they know we know they re lying but they still they lie. so i actually think that the ukrainians did take this down with a neptune missile. and possibly at great loss of life. not evacuated crew members. and what does it mean in terms of ukraine s ability to operate in that region? yeah, it s just significantly increase you think the ships that are in the harbor, they re in the harbor basin as they can be seen from
out of ukraine. i do not know that the u. s. government, or indeed any u. s. news agency has confirmed these reports that the russian flagship vessel might have been some, or very seriously damaged. but i think maybe veteran, someone in the armed services committee, can you talk about what it would mean if these reports are worn out? as you said, i felt like this has been independently verified. but it is interesting. also coming from the russians that they have indicated that there was a fire, which led to an explosion, and that the crew of about 500 has been evacuated from the ship. and meanwhile, ukraine also claims that they launched two of these long-range anti-surface cruise missiles, the neptune missile, but is the part that truly has not been verified. but i think the impact of it either way, whatever caused the explosion, the fire, the disabling of this ship, is going to have huge impacts for russia s ability to control its forces. the other
official to ukraine. president biden and vice president harris are unlikely choice. but maybe the secretary of defense. i want to bring in cnn s matt rivers with me now. let s talk about this warship. differing stories from russia and ukraine. it s a big deal no matter what happened here. i think it s very significant that russian state media can t ignore this. they can t ignore the damage and the fire on board the ship is big enough that even if they don t want to admit that it was a ukrainian missile, the fact that they are willing to talk about the fact that their sailors had to be evacuated off the ship is a very big deal. this is a flagship of the black sea fleet they have been using in the fight with ukraine. 500 sailors from anti-ship,