During the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol in 1941–1942, the ship escorted convoys to and from those cities and provided naval gunfire support to the defenders.

The crew complement of the Storozhevoy class numbered 207 in peacetime, but this increased to 271 in wartime, as more personnel were needed to operate additional equipment.

The ship was renamed Sposobny on 25 September 1940 and had her hull dented by ice while undergoing mooring trials in January before running aground while being towed by an icebreaker.

She was commissioned into the Black Sea Fleet on 24 June 1941, two days after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) ended the tests.

On 4 January, the destroyer escorted the light cruiser Krasny Kavkaz to Tuapse after she had been badly damaged by German dive bombers.

Her propeller shafts were misaligned by the explosion and one screw lost blades when it caught on the sinking bow, in addition to hull damage.

While under repair in Novorossiysk on 10 April, Sposobny was badly damaged by bomb splinters that ignited some 130 mm rounds and started several fires, killing 41 men and wounding 45.

The production of a new bow began on 24 June, but the German advance into the Caucasus forced the evacuation of the shipyard to Poti, where Sposobny was towed by the rescue tug Merkury between 9 and 12 August.

Together with Boyky and her sister Soobrazitelny, she departed Batumi on 26 August to lay mines off the Axis-held coast, but returned to base after being discovered en route by a German reconnaissance aircraft.

[7] Together with Boyky and the destroyer Besposhchadny, the ship made an unsuccessful attempt on 30 September to intercept German transports evacuating troops and equipment from the Kuban Bridgehead.

During the night of 5/6 October, Kharkov and the destroyers Besposhchadny and Sposobny attempted to intercept German evacuation convoys off the Crimean coast, but were again unsuccessful.

On their way home the three ships were spotted by German reconnaissance aircraft and were attacked by Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers of III./StG 3 beginning on the morning of 6 October.

The crew of Kharkov managed to return a boiler to operation around 14:00, but a third raid ten minutes later sank Besposhchadny and knocked out power aboard Sposobny with two near misses.