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As reported on May 27th, to mark its 10th anniversary, the special operations forces released a video featuring footage of their operations collected over the years. As Defense Express writes, this video, in particular, featured previously unseen footage of the destruction of a Russian ship, which was mistakenly identified online as a project 21631 Buyan-M small missile and artillery ship. They noted that this Buyan-M was a carrier, in particular, of 3M14 caliber cruise missiles. Two drones, likely FP1s controlled via satellite, were used to destroy it. After the hit, a serious fire broke out on board, and some crew members even jumped overboard to escape a second strike. According to them, a closer look
at the damaged ship reveals it is not a Buyan-M. A closer inspection reveals the absence of the superstructure housing the 3M14 caliber missile launchers with two AK-306 anti-aircraft mounts installed in their place. They claim that the project 21630 Buyan small artillery ship, the one that was actually hit, was the one that was modernized to create the Buyan-M. It has a significantly more modest armament consisting of a 100-mm A-190 cannon, two six-barreled 30-mm AK-306 anti-aircraft guns, a Grad-M multiple launch rocket system, and a 3M 47 Gibka anti-aircraft missile system. Interestingly, the Russian Navy only has three project 21630 Buyan ships: Astrakhan, Volgodonsk, and Makhachkala.
All of them are assigned to the Caspian Fleet, so it's likely that the damaged ship was one of these three operating in the Caspian Sea. Experts write, "It's still unknown which one was hit, and it's impossible to determine. Therefore, all we can do is wait for photographs of the damaged Buyan, which will likely undergo extremely lengthy and expensive repairs after sustaining the damage. They believe it was likely hit quite recently, given the recent surge in drone strikes against Russian warships in the Caspian Sea and elsewhere.
However, no reports have been received from the special operations forces or the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces regarding the destruction of the Buyan ships. Earlier, Ukrainian Defense Forces in Novorossiysk again engaged the Russian Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Essen, which carries Kalibr class missiles, and reached another ship. According to Robert Magyar Brovdy, commander of the unmanned systems force. According to him, on the night of May 23rd, the Admiral Essen and a Project 1239 hovercraft missile ship were caught in the kill zone during a SBS raid on the port of Novorossiysk and the Groshevaya Balka oil depot. Project 1239
missile hovercraft, Novorossiysk naval base, Krasnodar Krai, Russian Federation. Extent of damage unknown. This is about something else. We're close, you'll drown someday. Project frigate Admiral Essen, Novorossiysk naval base, Krasnodar Krai, Russian Federation. Extent of damage unknown. Magyar wrote on Telegram. The commander also noted that same night the SBS forces reached Russian targets in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Specifically, they destroyed an OSA air defense system in Donetsk, struck an enemy rear base and logistics hub in Rovenky, a UV control center in Aleshki in the Kherson region, as well as fuel tankers, special equipment, and armored vehicles in Zaporizhzhia.
