After the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the ship laid several minefields in the White and Barents Seas.

They licensed the plans for the Folgore class and, in modifying it for their purposes, overloaded a design that was already somewhat marginally stable.

Variations in fuel oil capacity meant that the range of the Gnevnys varied between 1,670 to 3,145 nautical miles (3,093 to 5,825 km; 1,922 to 3,619 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).

[11][12] Now assigned to the 1st Destroyer Division of the fleet, Sokrushitelny, together with her sister ship Grozny and the minelayer Kanin, helped to lay 275 mines on 23–24 July at the entrance to the White Sea.

The ship rendezvoused with the British minelayer HMS Adventure on 31 July in the Barents Sea and escorted her to Arkhangelsk.

On 10–15 September, Sokrushitelny and her sisters in the 1st Destroyer Division (Grozny, Gremyashchy and Gromky) laid a pair of minefields off the Rybachy Peninsula using British mines delivered by Adventure.

On 24 October, the ship bombarded German positions near the Zapadnaya Litsa River with 114 shells from her 130 mm guns.

During an escort operation together with Grozny between 24 and 26 December, the destroyer weathered a heavy storm during which a leak forced her to move on one boiler.

[12] On 31 December and 1 January 1942, Sokrushitelny fired one hundred 130 mm shells each day at German positions near Motovsky Gulf.

On 1 February Sokrushitelny and Grozny sortied to search for German transports in the region surrounding the towns of Vardø and Kirkenes, but the operation was called off due to frost and poor weather conditions.

After the light cruiser HMS Edinburgh was torpedoed by a German submarine on 30 April, they reversed course to provide assistance.

On the next day they claimed a Junkers Ju 88 bomber destroyed and two more damaged, before the convoy reached Kola Bay on the evening of 30 May.

After repairs, she rendezvoused with Allied ships on 23 August carrying supplies for a pair of British torpedo bomber squadrons that were intended to operate in Karelia.

In total, from the beginning of the war to 1 September, she made 40 sorties, covering 22,385 nautical miles in 1,518 running hours.

Low on fuel, the destroyers were forced to depart on 21 November, leaving the ship, which sank after their departure, with a skeleton crew of 16 men.