Ukrainian drone wrecks FSB’s new Arctic vessel
A high-profile Russian security service vessel, designed for Arctic operations, has been struck by a Ukrainian drone while docked at the Vyborg shipyard near St. Petersburg.
Photographs show the vessel—a Project 23550 icebreaking patrol ship—with a significant list. The ship is believed to be the Purga, a powerful vessel under construction for the FSB Coast Guard. Its keel was laid in July 2020.
In the early hours of March 25, a large number of Ukrainian drones targeted sites in and around St. Petersburg, including the FSB icebreaker and the Ust-Luga oil terminal.
"During a joint operation of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the Leningrad region on the night of March 25, a ship of the Russian occupiers was hit at the Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant," the Ukrainian General Staff reports.
Ukraine previously launched a successful attack on the strategically important Russian region on March 23, severely damaging the Primorsk oil terminal and halting oil exports.
The Vyborg shipyard, located approximately 1,000 km from Ukraine, was among the targets. The attack demonstrates Ukraine’s willingness to strike not only vessels and military installations directly linked to Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine but also other strategic assets.
The Project 23550 icebreaking patrol vessel is designed for Arctic operations and is one of four such vessels being built for the FSB. Two of the ships are under construction at the Vyborg Yard, while the other two are being built at the Admiralty Yard in St. Petersburg.
The first vessel of this class, the Ivan Papanin, entered service on the Kola Peninsula in early 2025. The second, the Nikolai Zubov, remains under construction at the Admiralty Yard, while the Purga and Dzerzhinsky—the latter named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, the ruthless leader of the Bolsheviks’ early secret police (the Cheka, GPU, and OGPU)—are being built in Vyborg.
As previously reported, Project 23550 vessels are designed for deep Arctic patrol missions. They are capable of breaking ice up to 1.7 metres thick (Arc7), functioning as tugboats, conducting search-and-rescue operations, and transporting cargo to remote military locations.
The ships are armed with a 76 mm AK-176MA artillery gun, feature a helipad and hangar for Ka-27 helicopters, and can deploy UAVs and high-speed boats. They also have rear platforms for container-based Kalibr-K cruise missiles.
