Was Russian cruiser Moskva carrying nuclear warheads; disputes arise [details]

After Russia said on Thursday that the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, the Moskva missile cruiser, was badly damaged in a blast, the country's Defence Ministry confirmed that the ship sank while being towed into port amid stormy sea conditions. According to the Russian military, the warship's hull had been damaged by an ammunition explosion, itself caused by a fire on board, on Wednesday.

But Ukrainian officials claimed their forces had struck the vessel with anti-ship missiles. This was after the it was reported on the evening of April 13 that Ukrainian anti-ship Neptune missile hit the missile cruiser of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. After that, the cruiser with 16 cruise missiles was disabled. Then, the Ukrainian military command announced in the afternoon of April 14 that the cruiser "Moskva" began to sink due to the hit of Ukrainian missiles.

Nuclear warheads onboard

While Ukrainian and Russian officials gave conflicting reports of how the cruiser sank, the bigger question and fear is if there were any nuclear warheads onboard Moskva. For this assessment, the US also weighed in, but again, there were conflicting reports.

Here's what the US has said:

US does not believe sunken Russian cruiser Moskva was carrying nuclear weapons, according to latest US intel assessment two senior US officials tell me. US has been monitoring Russian forces for unusual movement of nuclear weapons & have not detected such movements to date."

But many experts have refuted it, instead revealed that there were at least two nuclear warheads onboard Moskva.

"Friends and experts say that there are two nuclear warheads for cruise missiles onboard the Moskva," Andrii Klymenko, editor in chief of Ukraine's BlackSeaNews portal, said, according to East2West News. "Where are these warheads? Where were they when the ammunition exploded? Where is the point on the map, the coordinates?," Klymenko asked.

Mykhailo Samus, deputy director of the Lyiv-based Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, also said that there could have been two nukes, and that they would have been stored in a "protected place" preventing them from being damaged in the explosion.

If the cruiser was indeed carrying nuclear warheads, the worry is real and a thorough investigation is a dire necessity.