Almost a week after the sinking of the Moskva near the port of Odesa, Russia and Ukraine are sticking to vastly different accounts of what happened.
But photos released on social media give clues about the incident and appear to poke holes in the Russian explanation that the Soviet-era flagship of its Black Sea fleet sank in stormy seas after an onboard fire.
Ukraine's version is that it hit the ship in a brazen missile strike which would be one of the highest-profile naval attacks in decades.
Russia disputes this, saying the vessel was damaged after an onboard fire caused ammunition to explode.
The Moskva subsequently sank, it says, as it was being towed in a storm.
But images and video posted on Twitter appeared to show a badly damaged Moskva, with black holes in its side, in calm seas and benign weather.
Pictures of damage 'consistent' with missile attack
Conversely, they fail to provide conclusive proof that the Moskva was struck by two Neptune missiles, as Ukraine insisted on April 14.
However, military experts say the damage shown by social media images is "consistent" with a missile attack.
Retired British rear admiral Chris Parry, a former NATO commander, told the BBC he was sure the damage was caused by a missile strike, rather than an internal explosion, saying he believed the ship was hit "by one or two missiles".
A three-second video, taken from a nearby ship and posted on Twitter, appears to show the Moskva shortly after the attack.
In the video, a tug boat is on the right of the Moskva.
The freeboard section of the ship is badly damaged as smoke billows into the air.
The Moskva looks unstable and is leaning heavily to the left, having taken on water.
Author and ship captain John Konrad tweeted another view of the Moskva, using arrows to show the tug's position.
"[It's] close alongside starboard aft," he tweeted.
"It is also possible the tug is made fast and is pulling the ship astern."
While the loss of the 510-crew warship is seen as a boost for Ukrainian morale, experts do not expect its loss to have a major impact on Russia's invasion campaign.
Stark contrast between new Moskva and blackened remains
Another Twitter post appears to show before and after images of the Moskva, which first entered service with the Soviet navy in 1983 and had seen leaders from Mikhail Gorbachev to Vladimir Putin host world dignitaries onboard.
Russia has not admitted that it suffered any casualties in the loss of the ship.
On Saturday — three days after the initial incident — the Russian defence ministry released video of what it described as the entire crew of the Moskva marching in a parade at Sevastopol, a Crimean port city.
After the demise of the Moskva, the Russian navy will look to the Marshal Ustinov and the Varyag — the only other two ships that have multiple anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles.
Before being renamed Moskva (Russian for Moscow) in 1995 after the fall of the Soviet Union, the vessel was called "Slava" ("Glory").
But the social media images seem to suggest a rather inglorious end to the 39-year-old ship, even if we may never know the true story of its sinking.
ABC/Reuters
