41st Missile Ship Brigade
Identification
Open-source reporting identifies military unit 72165 as the 41st brigade of missile ships and boats of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, permanently based in Sevastopol, Crimea. Public reporting reviewed for this record ties the formation to Sevastopol at city/harbor level rather than to one clearly confirmed standalone headquarters building, so the location is best understood as a dispersed naval formation within Sevastopol’s fleet infrastructure. ([ru.krymr.com](https://ru.krymr.com/a/v-sevastopole-v-avtomobile-vzorvan-vysokopostavlennyy-rossiyskiy-ofitser-chto-ob-etom-izvestno-/33200934.html?utm_source=openai))
Subordinate structure
Reporting on the brigade consistently identifies two main subordinate elements: the 166th small missile ship division and the 295th Sulinsk missile boat division. As of November 2024, RFE/Crimea Realities listed eight active brigade combatants—Bora, Samum, Vyshny Volochyok, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Ingushetiya, Graivoron, R-60, and Naberezhnye Chelny—while earlier official Black Sea Fleet coverage also showed Samum, Shuya, Ivanovets, and R-60 operating in fleet drills. ([militarnyi.com](https://militarnyi.com/en/news/head-of-hq-of-missile-ships-of-russian-black-sea-fleet-eliminated-in-sevastopol/?utm_source=openai))
Strike capability
The brigade is a small-surface-strike formation built around missile corvettes and missile boats. TASS and related naval reporting show that Buyan-M corvettes Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Vyshny Volochyok, and Graivoron joined the 41st brigade and that these ships carry the Kalibr-NK long-range precision strike system; Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also said in July 2023 that the Karakurt-class Tsiklon had entered the Black Sea Fleet, and later public reporting associated it with this brigade before its reported loss. ([tass.com](https://tass.com/defense/1035218?utm_source=openai))
Combat losses
The brigade has suffered significant wartime attrition. On February 1, 2024, Ukraine’s military intelligence announced the destruction of the missile boat Ivanovets near Lake Donuzlav; AP reported the claim and OSW subsequently treated the sinking as having occurred. Public reporting also assessed that Tsiklon was sunk in Sevastopol after the May 19, 2024 strike, while a Russian ship was officially acknowledged damaged at Kerch’s Zaliv shipyard on November 4, 2023; satellite analysis and subsequent reporting identified the likely vessel as Askold, a Karakurt-class ship intended for the Black Sea Fleet. ([gur.gov.ua](https://gur.gov.ua/en/content/ivanoviets-na-dni-vnaslidok-spetsoperatsii-hur-mo-znyshcheno-raketnyi-kater-voroha.html?utm_source=openai))
Current posture
By mid-2024, public reporting indicated that elements of the brigade were being pushed away from traditional Sevastopol berths under Ukrainian strike pressure: RFE/Crimea Realities reported that both Bora-class ships moved to Novorossiysk in June 2024 and that Buyan-M ships had already been withdrawn from Sevastopol in autumn 2023. Separately, UK official statements in early 2024 assessed that Ukraine had destroyed or damaged about 30% of the Black Sea Fleet; taken together, those sources support the assessment that the brigade remains associated with Sevastopol organizationally but has operated in a more dispersed pattern since 2023–2024. ([ru.krymr.com](https://ru.krymr.com/a/v-sevastopole-v-avtomobile-vzorvan-vysokopostavlennyy-rossiyskiy-ofitser-chto-ob-etom-izvestno-/33200934.html))