Ukraine Claims Missile Strike on Russian Navy Frigate

Ukraine's navy claims to have targeted and hit a modern Russian frigate using a domestically-built antiship cruise missile - the same model used to sink the cruiser Moskva early in the war.

Overnight Tuesday, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Force (USF) and the Ukrainian Navy conducted a joint strike on the port of Novorossiysk, the latest in a long string of attacks on the primary Russian naval station in the Black Sea. According to the USF's commander, Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, the Black Sea Fleet "lost several military vessels, including missile carriers." Bystander videos on Russian social media confirmed explosions, fires and heavy air defense activity, and open-source satellite intelligence analysts noted damage to at least one pier in the naval base harbor.

In the same strike, Ukrainian Navy sailors deployed the Neptune missile system to hit the frigate Admiral Essen, the service claimed. Satellite imaging from recent days confirms that the Essen was in port at the time, but the extent of any damage is not yet clear. Separately, Ukrainian military intelligence agency HUR also claimed a drone strike on the Essen's superstructure.

Ukrainian forces previously claimed three less-powerful drone strikes on the Essen in March, May and August. The vessel is a priority target because it has been used to launch Kalibr cruise missiles at targets within Ukraine.

Admiral Essen is an Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate attached to the Black Sea Fleet, previously based out of Sevastopol. It had a reported near-miss with a Neptune missile in the early months of the war, sustaining damage but remaining in service, according to both Ukrainian and Russian sources. It transferred to Novorossiysk along with the rest of the fleet's major assets in 2023, when the Black Sea Fleet's security situation in Crimea deteriorated under heavy pressure from Ukrainian drone and missile strikes.