Ukraine's Defense Forces struck the Novorossiysk naval base, the frigate Admiral Essen and an oil terminal, while a Su-33 jet and an Mi-8 helicopter were destroyed near Anapa.
Overnight into September 9, units of Ukraine's Defense Forces carried out a combined strike on the "Novorossiysk" naval base in Russia's Krasnodar Krai. The strike hit the base's infrastructure, the Kalibr cruise missile carrier frigate Admiral Essen, and the seaport's fuel oil terminal. Separately, near Anapa, a carrier-based Su-33 fighter jet and an Mi-8 helicopter were destroyed. Volunteers Support Ukraine sees this operation as one of those rare pieces of news that isn't about fresh losses among Ukrainians, but about a concrete reduction in the enemy's ability to strike Ukrainian cities.
According to Ukraine's General Staff and intelligence, drones struck the frigate Admiral Essen directly — a ship regularly used to launch Kalibr cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities. The hit set the ship's superstructure on fire. Fires were also recorded at the base itself and at the port's fuel oil terminal, which has a capacity of roughly 4 million tonnes of petroleum products a year. President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that Ukraine "is responding to Russia's daily terrorist attacks — effectively, and across virtually the entire territory." Novorossiysk's mayor confirmed the drone attack took place, though as usual he tried to downplay its consequences.
That same night, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces reported destroying a carrier-based Su-33 fighter jet and an Mi-8 helicopter near an airfield close to Anapa, along with two radar systems — a Kasta 2E2 unit and a 92N6 radar from an S-300/S-400 air defense system. Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi said Russia's Black Sea Fleet lost a number of naval vessels, including missile carriers, as a result of the night's operation. For context, the Admiral Essen is a Project 11356 frigate of the Admiral Grigorovich class, carrying exactly the kind of Kalibr missiles Russia regularly uses to strike Ukrainian energy infrastructure and residential neighborhoods.
Every Kalibr carrier knocked out or damaged means, in very concrete terms, fewer missiles that will reach Ukrainian cities this autumn and winter. The same goes for the reduced capacity to supply fuel through the oil terminal, which affects the logistics of enemy forces in Crimea and the south. Volunteers Support Ukraine stresses that this is exactly the kind of news worth following closely — when a success for the Defense Forces directly translates into fewer threats for civilians in the rear.
Every operation that weakens the enemy's ability to strike Ukrainian cities is also about the safety of the very people our organization helps every day. Volunteers Support Ukraine supports people affected by the war within the resources it has available, delivering humanitarian aid where it is needed. The organization continues its work, and news like this is simply a reminder that, despite every difficulty, Ukraine's defense keeps growing more effective by the day.
