Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) and Defense Forces struck the Russian frigate Admiral Essen in Novorossiysk on the night of 1-2 March, disabling its ability to fire Kalibr cruise missiles at Ukraine, according to a source in the SBU who spoke to Liga and separately to Suspilne. An hours-long fire aboard the ship points to severe internal damage and complicated work for the ship's emergency crews, the source stated.
Admiral Essen is a carrier of eight Kalibr cruise missiles. Russia has used the ship to strike Ukrainian cities since 2022 — including a strike that destroyed Mykolaiv's regional council building on 29 March 2022. Ukraine previously struck the frigate in April 2022 using a Neptune anti-ship missile, the first combat use of the Neptune missile, and the ship continued operating. The SBU source indicated the 2 March damage is more consequential.
Direct hit strips frigate of Kalibr capability
The UAV struck Admiral Essen's midship superstructure, setting off a cascade of damage to its combat and defense systems, the SBU source said. The PK-10 decoy launchers on the sides of the superstructure — designed to deploy chaff and thermal flares against incoming missiles — detonated on impact.
The TK-25 electronic warfare complex, which detects enemy radar emissions and deploys active jamming, was damaged. The ZR-90 Orekh target-illumination radars, part of the ship's air defense missile guidance system, were struck. The main Fregat-M2M surveillance radar, responsible for long-range detection of air and surface targets, was likely damaged as well.
OSINT analysts at Cyberboroshno, whose satellite imagery analysis Euromaidan Press covered on 4 March, identified the same systems as damaged, so the SBU-attributed report is an unofficial confirmation of the reported damage.
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"The ship sustained critical damage that significantly limits its ability to deploy Kalibr cruise missiles. The frigate is currently unable to strike Ukrainian territory," the SBU source said.
What Cyberboroshno didn't report is that a fire that broke out on Admiral Essen's deck after the strike burned for approximately 18 hours, according to the SBU source. That duration indicates serious internal damage and complicated work for the ship's emergency crews, the source said.
SBU broke through dense Novorossiysk air defenses
During the operation, the SBU penetrated a dense, multi-layer Russian air defense system protecting Novorossiysk bay and port, the source told both Liga and Suspilne.
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, reported on 25 February a formal US diplomatic démarche over a 2025 Ukrainian drone strike on Novorossiysk that damaged the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's infrastructure. The 2 March operation struck the same port regardless.
If the damage to Admiral Essen holds, Russia faces the same repair problem it has encountered with previous strike damage at Novorossiysk: Sevastopol's main naval repair facilities remain under Ukrainian threat, and Novorossiysk lacks the infrastructure for major warship overhauls.
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