Moscow, Apr 15 (AP) The Russian military says the damaged Moskva missile cruiser has sunk while being towed to a port.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the Moskva sank Thursday in a storm after being gutted by fire. The ministry previously said a fire on the warship set off some of its weapons and forced the crew to evacuate.

Also Read | Russia Claims Ukrainian Helicopters Carried Out Strikes On Its Territory.

But Ukrainian officials said the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was hit by Ukrainian missiles late Wednesday off the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa.

The U.S. was not able to confirm Ukraine's claims of striking the warship, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday. Still, he called it “a big blow to Russia.”

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

NEW YORK — A Russian legislator and two aides were charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions as they pushed a covert Russian propaganda campaign in the U.S. to win support for moves against Ukraine and other countries, an indictment unsealed Thursday said.

Three conspiracy charges were brought in an indictment in Manhattan federal court against the legislator, Aleksandr Babakov, 59, and two of his staff members — Aleksandr Nikolayevich Vorobev, 52, and Mikhail Alekseyevich Plisyuk, 58.

All three men named are based in Russia and remain at large, authorities said. Babakov currently serves as deputy chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature, federal authorities said in a release.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Babakov's actions show Russia's “illegitimate actions against Ukraine extend beyond the battlefield, as political influencers under Russia's control allegedly plotted to steer geopolitical change in Russia's favor through surreptitious and illegal means in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West.”

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PARIS — France is moving its embassy in Ukraine back to Kyiv from the western city of Lviv, after Russian troops pulled away from regions around the capital and have concentrated on embattled eastern Ukraine.

The French Foreign Ministry announced the move Thursday after Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba about French military and humanitarian support for Ukraine. A date for the move was not announced.

France had maintained its embassy in Kyiv at the outset of the war but moved its operations to Lviv in March. France sent a new convoy of fire trucks, ambulance and emergency equipment to Ukraine on Thursday and a team of French investigators arrived this week to gather evidence of war crimes.

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LONDON — Britain's Foreign Office says it is freezing the assets worth up to 10 billion pounds ($13.1 billion) belonging to two Russian oligarchs described as long-standing business associates of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Officials said Thursday that Eugene Tenenbaum took control of Evrington Investments Ltd., an Abramovich-linked investment company, immediately following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Tenenbaum, who is also a director of Chelsea Football Club, was hit with an asset freeze.

The other sanctioned Russian is David Davidovich, who was subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban.

The move came after the Channel Island of Jersey said this week it is freezing an estimated $7 billion of assets suspected to be connected to Abramovich, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Britain's government said the measures “cut key revenue sources for Putin's war machine” amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Western countries' attempts to phase out Russian gas imports will have a negative impact on their economies.

Speaking Thursday, Putin said European attempts to find alternatives to Russian gas shipments will be “quite painful for the initiators of such policies.”

He argued that “there is simply no reasonable replacement for it in Europe now.”

Putin noted that “supplies from other countries that could be sent to Europe, primarily from the United States, would cost consumers many times more.” He added it would “affect people's standard of living and the competitiveness of the European economy.”

The European Union is dependent on Russia for 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil.

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LONDON — Ireland's foreign minister is in Kyiv, the latest in a string of senior European politicians to make the trip to show support for Ukraine's fight against Russian invasion.

The Irish government says Simon Coveney, who is also defense minister, is meeting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

Ireland has sent Ukraine 20 million euros ($22 million) in humanitarian aid and 33 million euros ($36 million) in non-lethal military assistance.

It is also a strong backer of Ukraine's bid to join the European Union, and the government said Coveney would discuss how Ireland can “assist Ukraine in its application for EU candidate status.”

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PRAGUE — Three Czech lawmakers from Parliament's upper house, the Senate, are visiting Kyiv together with their counterparts from Poland. Led by speaker Milos Vystrcil, they were invited by Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of Ukraine's unicameral parliament Verkhovna Rada. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)