St. Petersburg military commissariat sends draft note to a sailor from sunken cruiser Moskva

The military commissariat for St. Petersburg’s Frunzensky district in late October issued a draft note for Mikhail T. (name altered — editor’s note) who served as a navy chef on the sunken Russian cruiser Moskva, the Fontanka news outlet reports, citing the man’s relatives.

Mikhail’s family and friends do not know what happened to him after the ship sank.

The draft note says that Mikhail must present himself before the commissariat to get his military records updated for the purposes of the mobilisation. “You can face legal consequences for failing to report [to the commissariat] at the specified time and place without a valid reason,” the note reads.

A friend of Mikhail’s says that he was conscripted last autumn.

The Ukrainian authorities reported striking the Russian Moskva cruiser in the Black Sea with Neptun missiles on 13 April. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the explosion shortly afterwards but reported that the cruiser was damaged by “detonation of weapons” that occurred due to a fire, all sailors were evacuated, and the ship “remained floating.” The next day, the ministry announced that the cruiser had sank in a storm while being towed away from the location.

According to the official report of Russia’s Defence Ministry, one crew member of Moskva lost his life, another 27 were declared missing. It was also reported that the relatives of at least five conscripts received their death certificates.

Last week, a Sevastopol court proclaimed 17 Moskva sailors dead. Mikhail was not one of them.