HUR strikes Kalibr-carrying frigate Admiral Essen in Novorossiysk

HUR’s Active Operations Department carried out the attack with other Defense Forces units.

The hits sparked a fire in the ship’s superstructure.

The Admiral Essen carries Kalibr cruise missiles, which Russia regularly uses to strike Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

Strikes on Novorossiysk

Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck the Novorossiysk naval base in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai on the night of Sept. 9. The attack destroyed several Russian vessels, including missile carriers.

On the night of Aug. 12, the city also came under a large-scale drone attack. Zelenskyy called the operation unique, saying the Defense Forces for the first time simultaneously deployed Palianytsia, Peklo and Bars missile-drones, a Long Neptune missile, nine types of drones, and Sargan and Mamai uncrewed boats. The targets were more than 300 kilometers from the front line.

The General Staff said the attack hit Project 11356 frigates Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen, both Kalibr missile carriers, as well as a Project 21631 Buyan-M small missile ship and the Project 22160 patrol ship Vasily Bykov.

The CyberBoroshno OSINT project reported that the Defense Forces also struck the port’s grain and oil terminals in that attack. As a result, all three of the city’s grain terminals halted operations — the Novorossiysk Grain Terminal, NKHP and KSK — which have a combined handling capacity of about 26.1 million metric tons of grain per year.