Overview
- Ukraine said it carried out a combined deep-strike Tuesday night into Wednesday that hit the Novorossiysk naval base and started a fire on the superstructure of the frigate Admiral Essen.
- The Ukrainian Navy and Defence Intelligence attributed the hit on Admiral Essen to a Neptune cruise missile and OSINT satellite imagery from Exilenova+ shows fires and damage consistent with those claims.
- Ukrainian officials also named hits on the frigate Admiral Makarov, a Buyan-M corvette and the patrol ship Vasily Bykov along with strikes on port infrastructure and nearby aircraft and radar sites, but independent, vessel-by-vessel damage assessments are still pending.
- Novorossiysk local authorities reported civilian damage from falling debris and said four people were killed and about 30 injured in strikes on industrial, religious and residential sites.
- The raid continues a months-long Ukrainian campaign to degrade Kalibr-capable ships based in Novorossiysk and, if confirmed, illustrates how longer-range Neptune variants and drone tactics could further limit Russia’s ability to launch long-range strikes from the Black Sea and disrupt regional port activity.