27 May 2026
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) used several drones to destroy the Russian missile corvette of Project 21631 Buyan-M.
The operation was carried out on October 4, 2025, but the video of the strike was only released now.
During the drone attack, Russian sailors jumped into the water from the burning vessel.
The operation took place at 04:31 a.m. in the waters of Lake Onega, located in the Republic of Karelia. Back then, the Special Operations Forces officially stated that it was the “Grad” ship of Project 21631 Buyan-M.
The vessel was transiting from the Baltic Sea to the Caspian Sea, likely to reinforce Russia’s naval grouping in the southern region.
Its route passed through Russia’s inland waterways.
The Grad is one of the newest vessels in the Buyan-M class. It was commissioned into the Russian Baltic Fleet on December 29, 2022.
If only confirmed cases of destruction of Project 21631 Buyan-M vessels are considered, Ukraine has now damaged at least three such vessels.
In October 2023, an attack on a Buyan-M missile carrier in Sevastopol was reported, but at the time, the exact type of vessel was disputed, so the case is often not considered definitively confirmed.
Buyan-M missile corvette. Photo from open sources
On August 28, 2025, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces reported the destruction of a Buyan-M vessel in the Sea of Azov near Crimea using FPV and strike drones.
On October 4, 2025, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also reported damage to another Buyan-M in the area of Lake Onega in Karelia.
Grad missile corvette of Project 21631 Buyan-M. Photo from open sources
In addition, unconfirmed cases of damage have been reported. It is not known for certain when and where the first vessel was damaged, but in June 2022, one of them was observed being towed on the Volga River.