With her sea trials cut short by the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in June, Skory was assigned to the Baltic Fleet and fought in the defense of Tallinn, Estonia, providing naval gunfire support to Soviet troops.

During the evacuation of Tallinn on 28 August, she struck a mine while attempting to tow the damaged destroyer leader Minsk and was nearly broken in half, sinking within minutes with the loss of 57 crewmen and an unknown number of passengers.

Variations in fuel oil capacity meant that the range of the Project 7Us varied from 1,380 to 2,700 nautical miles (2,560 to 5,000 km; 1,590 to 3,110 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), that upper figure demonstrated by Storozhevoy.

Her trials were drastically curtailed as a result of the war and the Soviet naval jack was raised aboard her on 15 July, before joining the 2nd Division of the Baltic Fleet Light Forces Detachment three days later.

On 28 August Skory was ordered to take the destroyer leader Minsk in tow, after she was damaged in the area of Cape Juminda by the explosion of a mine caught in her paravanes.

Within minutes the ship capsized and sank with the loss of 57 crew members, including the captain, in addition to an unknown number of Baltic Fleet Naval Aviation mechanics.