On August 28, 2025, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) announced that they struck Russian Project 21631 Buyan-M class corvette in the Sea of Azov, near Crimea, with one way attack drones.
The GUR mentioned that its special forces, together with the “Prymary” special unit, carried out a joint operation against a Russian warship in the Sea of Azov near occupied Crimea.
According to the statement and accompanying video released by the GUR, the target was a Project 21631 Buyan-M missile corvette, a vessel equipped to launch Kalibr cruise missiles. During the operation, fighters of the “Prymary” unit reportedly disabled the ship’s radar system with a precision drone strike, while Defence Intelligence forces struck its missile launcher directly.
The vessel was operating in Temryuk Bay, within range for potential Kalibr launches against Ukraine. As a result of the strikes, Kyiv said, the corvette sustained significant damage and was forced to withdraw from its combat patrol zone.
The Russian Ministry of Defence has not commented on the Ukrainian claims. If confirmed, the incident would mark another blow to Russia’s naval presence in the Black Sea and Azov regions, where several high-value assets have previously been targeted by Ukrainian drones and missiles.
Naval News previously reported several Ukrainian attacks on Russian navy assets. Most of them involved the use of Kamikaze USVs. Some of these attacks involved the use of Neptune or Scalp/Storm Shadow missiles. Back in 2022, we reported on Russia striking a Ukrainian Navy Gyurza-M class gunboat with a loitering munition. Ukrainian strikes on Russian Navy vessels are getting more rare these days as Russia is basing its vessel away from Sevastopol, Crimea, out of range of Ukrainian surface drones and missiles.
In other recent Black Sea developments, Russia struck a Ukrainian Laguna-class SIGINT ship with a kamikaze USV. The Ukrainian intelligence gathering vessel was operating near the mouth of the Danube River.
