This is the biggest loss for Russia in the war so far. Forget the armor loss or the strategic retreat from the north.
Losing a flag ship is just symbolic devastating. A superpower military power is always symbolized by their Navy and a capital ship or a flag ship symbolize their prestige in military technology and engineer.
Tactically, this loss shouldn't matter as much although the missiles on board are also a huge loss, but strategic this loss is very devastating symbolically to Russia.
If Russia keeps half-sizing this war and not fight it like what it really is--a war--they will suffer more significant losses.
That ship is garbage. For many years Russia is trying to decide yes or no to scrap it. Suddenly they decided to fix it up and run it, and its not without any problems. I'm not even sure if the weapons systems are running or they are even present.
The real loss is the scrap metal it could have provided for the Russian economy.
In the meantime, the Russians are also claiming that Kalibr missiles from the Admiral Essen frigate took out the Serbian donated S300PMU. If true, and the Ukr is denying it while sat photos appear that the area has indeed been hit, this validates the use and importance of the naval Kalibrs, and that is something the PLAN needs to look into. The PLAN has been reluctant in deploying land targeting cruise missiles on their ships. I should add that the Moskva is incapable of using the Kalibr without halving or removing its naval S300 RIF-M system, which is why the Russian Navy appears set in dead ending the class. Another thing to note is that the dual use Kh-35U, which is an antiship missile now upgraded to hit land targets, has been used against many targets, and that validates the PLAN going dual use for their YJ-83 antiship missile. I should add that the Russians also claim that one of the frigates, either the Essen or the Grigorovich, has managed a Bayraktar kill using the Shtil missile, making it the first kill from the naval VLS version of the Buk.
I am going to add that the Moskva blowing up on its own is entirely plausible, given the embarrassing safety record of the Russian Navy, ranging from the sinking of the Kursk submarine to the near blowup of the Sovremenny class Bystry in 2012 (ship started burning and nearly blew up, but saved by the heroic efforts of a young lad, who died because of it, was awarded Hero of Russia posthumously and an advanced corvette named after him). This parallels the 1943 blow up of the Japanese battleship Mutsu, where almost all hands died, which happened on its own without American action.
