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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Ukraine struck three Russian warships in one of Moscow's major Black Sea ports, according to Kyiv, as Ukrainian forces continue to pressure the Kremlin by menacing its surface ships and submarines with home-grown drones and missiles.
Two Russian frigates, the Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov, were damaged in "large-scale" Ukrainian attacks on Russia's Novorossiysk base, Ukraine's SBU security agency said in a statement late Wednesday. The spy agency said it had also struck a patrol ship, the Vasily Bykov.
Frigates are medium-size warships which can protect other ships or launch long-range weapons. Both Russian frigates carried Kalibr cruise missiles, the SBU said, referring to weapons which have been regularly launched at Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022.
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Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
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Despite having no real navy, Ukraine said it had destroyed or seriously damaged about a third of Russia's entire Black Sea fleet by the start of 2026 by wielding its drone fleet and domestically-developed missiles against Russian forces.
According to Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, among Russia's losses were its Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, and one of its submarines that was struck by missiles as it sat in dry docks in Sevastopol, the home for the fleet on the edge of Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
As the northwestern Black Sea, close to Ukraine, became more dangerous, Ukrainian and Western officials said Russia moved many of its ships from Crimea toward Novorossiysk—a secondary base further from Kyiv's reach.
Satellite imagery later emerged showing new defenses at Novorossiysk, including smaller, decoy silhouettes drawn alongside submarines.
Analysts with Vantor, a major satellite imagery provider, said three Russian frigates and a patrol ship had been damaged in the attacks into Wednesday. A grain storage and shipping site was also hit, Vantor said.
Ukraine said it had targeted port and oil facilities in the wider Krasnodar region, where Novorossiysk is located, with jet-powered drones, its domestically-designed Neptune cruise missiles and sea drones into the early hours of Wednesday.
The attacks also damaged a radar for one of Russia's S-300 air defense system, a group of military equipment to fire on Ukrainian targets from Novorossiysk and part of a tunnel at an oil depot, the SBU said.
Krasnodar regional governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, said Ukraine had launched "a massive attack" with several hundred drones on the region, killing three people in Novorossiysk. Russian authorities said 24 others were injured.
Most of the strikes rained down on Novorossiysk, where 60 residential buildings were damaged, Kondratyev said. Local officials reported water shortages after a pipeline was damaged in the city.
Russia's defense ministry said more than 500 Ukrainian drones were "intercepted" over seven Russian regions—including Krasnodar—as well as Crimea and the Black Sea.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Cristina Diciu.
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