# Russian frigate Admiral Makarov

Admiral Makarov is an Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate of the Russian Navy, part of the Black Sea Fleet based at Sevastopol. She was laid down at the Yantar Shipyard in February 2012 and commissioned on 25 December 2017. She is the most recently built of her class, and the third of six ships that had been planned in the class as of November 2014.

## Service

In July 2018, the frigate took part in Russia's Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg.
On 18 August 2018, Admiral Makarov set sail from the Baltic Sea for the Black Sea and sailed through the English Channel on 21 August. She had been spotted while in transit there by HMS Queen Elizabeth in the English Channel on 18 August during her maiden voyage. After shadowing the British supercarrier, Admiral Makarov arrived at her permanent base in Sevastopol in early October.
On 5 November 2018, the press service of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet announced the frigate had left Sevastopol to join the Russian naval group in the eastern Mediterranean.

### 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

In 2022, Admiral Makarov—along with Admiral Essen—took part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, targeting a Ukrainian oil refinery and fuel depots in the suburbs of Odesa with cruise missiles.
Following the 14 April 2022 sinking of the cruiser Moskva, Admiral Makarov assumed the role of flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.
On 6 May 2022, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko claimed that Admiral Makarov had been struck and badly damaged by a Ukrainian missile. On 7 May, the adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovych said that the report was a "misunderstanding", and that the vessel attacked was actually a Serna-class landing craft. On 9 May, Admiral Makarov was spotted sailing intact near Sevastopol.
Ukrainian navy claims that, during a naval engagement, the Ukrainian 28th Naval Auxiliary Division's ship Pochayiv managed to force Admiral Makarov to retreat. Admiral Makarov opened fire on Pochayiv using it's 100-mm but missed the targets due to its careful maneuvering. Admiral Makarov was much larger and better equipped but the crew of Pochayiv lured it into the range of Ukrainian coastal artillery forcing it to retreat to Sevastopol.
On 29 October 2022, Admiral Makarov suffered damage during an attack on Sevastopol by several air and sea drones with at least one sea drone striking the ship, reportedly disabling the radar. Russian news agency TASS reported that all the air drones had been destroyed. Satellite footage from 1 November showed Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates believed to include Admiral Makarov moored in Sevastopol. Naval News subsequently reported that little damage had occurred to either of the two warships that were hit by the sea drones, but that the military effect of the attack on the protected harbor of Sevastopol exceeded the direct damage because it led to the Russian Navy going into a protective mode, "essentially locking them in port. ... New defenses were quickly added, new procedures imposed and there was much less activity. Russia’s most powerful warships in the war [were by mid-November] mostly tied up in port." On 15 August 2023, Admiral Makarov returned to active duty after being damaged in the October 2022 attack.
Sometime between 1 and 3 October 2023, Admiral Makarov was transferred along with Admiral Essen from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Krai.

## Ukrainian commemorative stamp

A Ukrainian postage stamp issued in 2024 and entitled "The Russian Navy -> to the bottom!" shows several sunken Russian military vessels and a single vessel afloat with red crosshairs superimposed on it. The full postage sheet shows a checked-off list of ships sunk during the conflict, with Admiral Makarov at the top of the list, bearing a crosshair instead of a checkmark.