Russian military commissariat sends draft summons for missing cook who served on sunken Moskva cruiser

A military commissariat in St. Petersburg sent a draft order to a ship’s cook from the Russian cruiser Moskva whose family has been searching for him since April.

According to the St. Petersburg-based outlet Fontanka, the man’s relatives received a summons addressed to him in late October. “You may be prosecuted if you do not appear at the indicated time and place without a legitimate reason,” it read.

The man’s family has not heard from him since April 8, when the Moskva cruiser left the Port of Sevastopol. The ship sank on April 13.

When the Moskva cruiser sank in mid-April, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the crew had been fully evacuated.

Most of the ship’s sailors were young conscripts serving their mandatory one-year terms in the military. Their families publicized their disappearance on social networks, generating a significant outcry.

The exact number of sailors who died in the sinking of Moskva is unknown. A source close to the Black Sea Fleet command told Meduza that 37 servicemen had died on the ship. The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged only one such death, declaring 27 other sailors to be missing in action.