A Russian Navy frigate has been engulfed in fire and explosions after coming under a sustained Ukrainian drone assault in the Black Sea, with footage showing repeated strikes before a massive orange fireball lit up the night sky.
The warship, identified as the Admiral Essen, was reportedly hit on May 23 near Novorossiysk, one of Russia’s most heavily fortified naval hubs on the Black Sea coast.
Video circulating on Ukrainian channels shows a series of rapid impacts on the vessel, followed by a larger detonation that sent flames and smoke rising high above the waterline. The authenticity of the footage has not been independently verified.
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The operation was confirmed by Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Commander Magyar Brovdi, who posted a defiant message on social media following the strike.
“You are doomed to sink one day, you scab – you will not hide!” he wrote, in a message that underscored the increasingly personalised and incendiary tone of the information war running alongside the battlefield conflict.
The Admiral Essen, a 410ft guided-missile frigate with a crew of around 220, is believed to be capable of carrying Kalibr cruise missiles, which Russia has used extensively in long-range strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
It has also previously been deployed in operations beyond Ukraine, including during Russia’s intervention in Syria in 2017.
Ukrainian media reports suggest this is at least the fourth attempt to strike the vessel in recent months, with earlier attacks in April also said to have caused damage, highlighting what appears to be a sustained effort to degrade Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
An FP-1/2 drone struck the Project 11356 frigate Admiral Essen at the Novorossiysk naval base on May 23 pic.twitter.com/W41orgPELt
— Exilenova+ (@Exilenova_plus) May 29, 2026
The strike took place in the waters off Novorossiysk, a key logistics and command centre for Russian naval operations, where air defence systems have been repeatedly tested by Ukrainian unmanned attacks since 2022.
While battlefield claims from both sides cannot be independently confirmed, the apparent persistence of Ukrainian drone operations against high-value naval targets reflects a broader shift in the war towards long-range, asymmetric strikes deep behind front lines.
The latest attack comes as the Black Sea has become one of the most volatile theatres of the conflict, with both Russia and Ukraine increasingly relying on unmanned systems to project force far beyond traditional naval engagement ranges.
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