Ukraine's official Twitter account became the talk of the internet when it mocked the Russian state in the hours after the Ukrainian military reported it had conducted a successful missile strike that sank the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The Ukraine's official Twitter account appeared to take significant glee in the news, teasing Russian military forces with the message:
"Russian warship, what are you sinking?"
Russia's military has downplayed the sinking of the Moskva and the country's Defense Ministry claimed any damage to the ship was caused by a fire and it later sank while being towed in a storm.
But Ukraine disputed that account, saying it struck the vessel with Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, marking the first time they've been used in combat.
The New York Times reported the sinking of the Moskva proved "a potent symbolic victory for the Ukrainian military," an assesment no doubt endorsed by the Ukrainian government.
The tweet quickly went viral.
Many on the platform agreed whoever wrote the post has some serious social media cred while others broke out the memes.
Russian state television has attempted the spin the sinking of the Moskva as just a temporary setback but that narrative does not appear to have been accepted by the average Russian citizen.
According to Andrei Medvedev, a journalist at the state-run broadcaster VGTRK and a deputy for the Moscow city council, the loss of the ship is a blow "from a reputational and a military point of view" but stopped short of calling it a "catastrophe."
The ship's sinking, said the political analyst Alexander Baunov, lies "in sharp contrast with the image of a successfully modernised army promoted by Russian officials and state-owned media, and with the self-confidence with which Russia embarked on this war."
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