The destroyer entered service in July of that year, a month after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, and shelled German positions on the Gulf of Riga coast in early August.

Statny grounded and was abandoned before sinking during a storm on 22 August following a failed salvage effort to pump out water from her flooded compartments.

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.

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.

[8] During August, she and her sister Surovy shelled German positions on the coast of the Gulf of Riga, expending 111 main-gun rounds on a coastal artillery battery near Ainaži on 6 August and 72 on the railway station and jetty of Mērsrags two days later; she escaped unscathed from the return fire from coastal batteries on both occasions.

At 12:00 the rescue ship Saturn approached and attempted to pump out the water from the flooded compartments, but was forced to withdraw until nightfall due to another air raid.