NYT: Biden's administration was furious and panicked when Ukrainians sank Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva – Ukrainska Pravda

Ukrainian forces struck a major blow to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on 14 April 2022, sinking its flagship, the Moskva missile cruiser. This attack prompted a strong adverse reaction in the United States.
Source: an article by The New York Times (NYT)
Details: The article notes that in mid-April 2022, American and Ukrainian naval officers were carrying out routine reconnaissance when something unexpected appeared on their radar screens. A former high-ranking American officer recalls, “The Americans go: ‘Oh, that’s the Moskva!’ The Ukrainians go: ‘Oh my God. Thanks a lot. Bye’.”
Quote: “The Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The Ukrainians sank it.
The sinking was a signal triumph – a display of Ukrainian skill and Russian ineptitude. But the episode also reflected the disjointed state of the Ukrainian-American relationship in the first weeks of the war.
For the Americans, there was anger, because the Ukrainians hadn’t given so much as a heads-up; surprise, that Ukraine possessed missiles capable of reaching the ship; and panic, because the Biden administration hadn’t intended to enable the Ukrainians to attack such a potent symbol of Russian power.”
Details: The NYT describes the complex relationship between the military commands of Ukraine and the United States.
When American generals proposed assistance after the invasion began, they encountered significant mistrust.
“We’re fighting the Russians. You’re not. Why should we listen to you?” Oleksandr Syrskyi, the then Commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, supposedly told the Americans during their first meeting.
However, Syrskyi quickly changed his mind: the Americans could provide intelligence on the battlefield that his subordinates would never have obtained on their own.
In those early days, US General Christopher Donahue and a few of his aides would relay information on Russian troop movements to Syrskyi and his staff via telephone. However, this informal arrangement highlighted a sensitive issue of rivalry within Ukraine’s military, particularly between General Syrskyi and his superior, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Supporters of Zaluzhnyi believed that Syrskyi was leveraging this connection to his own advantage.
The situation was further complicated by the tense relationship between Zaluzhnyi and his American counterpart, General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Read also: Sinking the Moskva: previously undisclosed details. How the Ukrainian Neptune destroyed the flagship of the Russian fleet
During telephone calls, General Milley would often question Ukraine’s requests for arms or offer battlefield advice based on satellite intelligence available to him in his Pentagon office. These conversations were typically followed by an awkward silence, with Zaluzhnyi eventually cutting them short. At times, he would simply ignore the American’s calls.
To maintain dialogue, the Pentagon set up a convoluted phone chain: a Milley aide would contact Major General David S. Baldwin, head of the California National Guard, who would then call Ihor Pasternak, a wealthy blimp manufacturer based in Los Angeles. Pasternak, originally from Lviv, had ties to Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Defence Minister at the time. Reznikov would then locate General Zaluzhnyi and, as General Baldwin recalled, tell him, “I know you’re mad at Milley, but you have to call him”.
“Ragtag alliance coalesced into partnership in the quick cascade of events,” the NYT writes.
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