The Admiral Essen has been hit so many times it is less a warship and more a floating performance art piece about the decline of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
A Revenge Tour for the Neptune
The Ukrainian Navy confirmed the September 9 strike in Novorossiysk. The Neptune missile finally got its revenge tour going. The Neptune targeted this ship first in combat back in April 2022. That time the missile missed the hull but damaged the weapons system. Now the long Neptune reached out and touched the Essen properly.
Look at the timeline. March 2, 2026: hit in the superstructure, fire for 18 hours, electronic warfare complex damaged, radar damaged. SBU sources said it could no longer launch Kalibrs. April 6: another strike, identified by OSINT analysts from CyberBoroshno using satellite imagery and those distinctive white antenna fairings. May 23: hit again by the 1st Separate Center of the Special Operations Forces. August 11-12: hit again during a large combined deep-strike operation, with the Main Intelligence Directorate naming the Essen among the damaged ships. And now September 9: Neptune confirmed.
The tally is at least five confirmed strikes on one frigate, with one more probable. The Russian Navy keeps parking its remaining assets in Novorossiysk thinking distance equals safety. It fails. Ukrainian drones and missiles keep finding them.
The Fleet That Hides and Still Gets Hit
The Black Sea Fleet has already lost its flagship Moskva. Then the Makarov took over and got wrecked. Now the Essen is a repeated target. The fleet that was supposed to blockade Ukraine and starve its economy is now hiding in port and still getting hit.
The strategic point is simple. Russia uses these ships to launch Kalibr cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities. Every strike on the Essen means fewer Kalibrs in the air. Every damaged radar means less ability to target. Every fire means more repair time in a shipyard that is itself within range.
The demilitarization of the Russian fleet is a concrete objective, a process, and the process is working.
Systematic Degradation
The information from @informnapalm lays out the sequence clearly. The process succeeds every time. Systematic degradation characterizes this pattern. The Russian Navy cannot replace these ships quickly. Sanctions have cut off access to Western marine engines and electronics. Their shipbuilding industry is slow and corrupt. So every Ukrainian strike on a frigate is a permanent subtraction from Russian naval power.
Western powers need to pay attention. Ukraine is doing this with its own missiles, its own drones, its own intelligence. No NATO ships involved. No foreign boots. Just a country defending itself by taking out the platforms that launch cruise missiles at apartment buildings. That is legitimate self-defense under any reading of international law. It works.
The Black Sea now belongs to no single power. Russian naval ambitions lie buried here. The Essen is just the latest exhibit.
