Combat casualty (according to Ukraine) or accident (according to Russia) no good way for Russia to spin this. Either way, this is a devastating blow because it means one of two things; either Russian warships have no means of integrated self-defense and are sitting ducks, or their crews or so poorly trained in the basic handling and stowage of ordnance that they occasionally blow their own ships up.
It also likely means Russia is going to escalate as a means to take revenge, turn morale around, and put this event behind them.
...or Vladamir gets neutered by his oligarchs.
A lot of them have had their toys embargoed.
The response should worry sane people. Especially if it seems like NATO did this in reality and called it a Ukrainian action. This could get nasty.
“no good way for Russia to spin this.”
All the little Putinbots are desperately trying, though.
A look at the pic tells us that a hit among those missile tubes on the main deck (and that is about 30% of the length of the ship) is probably going to cause catastrophic damage to the ship.
Even if it didn't sink and doesn't sink, once abandoned to the fire if/when it is reclaimed it is going to spend years in dry dock getting repaired and refitted. All the wiring in affected areas will have to be replaced - probably the entire run because splices are just asking for trouble. If they feared ammunition cook-off from the fires they probably flooded the magazines to prevent it (only reason it isn't at the bottom). That means lots of salt water in places that really shouldn't have salt water in them.
This is basic stuff for a modern navy. You have to have good designs and firefighting procedures. You have to be able to defend your high value assets. The Russian navy, similar to the Russian army, appears to be failing at the fundamentals.
It looks like we’re headed for World War III.