Finland Confirms Russian Warship Attacked in Gulf of Finland
Finnish officials confirmed a Russian warship was attacked in the Gulf of Finland. Ukraine's SBU says it hit the corvette Naro-Fominsk during a drone raid on Ust-Luga. It is thought to be the first such strike in Baltic waters open to civilian shipping.
Finnish officials have confirmed that a Russian warship was attacked in the Gulf of Finland this week, though little is known about the strike. Ukraine's SBU security service said it targeted the ship Naro-Fominsk as part of a wider drone operation against Russia's Ust-Luga oil export depot on the Baltic coast.
The attack is thought to be the first time Ukrainian drones have hit a Russian ship in a part of the Baltic Sea open to civilian maritime traffic. It has raised questions about whether Ukraine could widen its strikes.
What Finland and Estonia say
Finland's military has given few details. The incident appears to have taken place in a narrow stretch some distance from the Finnish coast.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen was adamant that the situation in the Baltic Sea remained stable and safe. She said there was no threat of any kind to marine traffic. Helsinki is one of Kyiv's closest European allies, and Finnish officials have described the incident as a direct result of Russia's continued full-scale war.
Defense officials are understood to have stressed to Kyiv that the Gulf is a relatively narrow waterway. Oil tankers and civilian vessels use it, and it also holds subsea data cables.
Estonian Defense Minister Martin Herem told public broadcaster ERR the ship was hit at about 05:30 local time (03:30 GMT). He did not say how it was attacked. "We know that smoke came from the ship afterwards. The ship itself went back towards St Petersburg," he said.
Ukraine's account
The SBU described the vessel as a Buyan-M type small corvette carrying Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles. There were also unconfirmed reports that Russian combat helicopters were destroyed.
The extent of casualties or damage to the ship remains unclear. Moscow rarely gives such details.
The Ust-Luga raid
Ukrainian drones are regularly launched into Russia from northern Ukraine. Several storage tanks at the Ust-Luga terminal are thought to have been hit overnight, and fires at the port were visible across the border in Estonia.
Herem said the drones attacked the Ust-Luga region from midnight until about 06:00. Most flew close to the Estonian border but stayed in Russian airspace. One drone briefly entered Estonian airspace from Latvia before heading toward Russia.
Nato aircraft based in the Baltic states were in the air at the time. Herem said it had not been considered safe for them to shoot the drones down.
Escalation or not
Military analyst Emil Kastehelmi, co-founder of the Black Bird monitoring group, said Russia's Baltic Sea fleet had been untouched until now. "There seemingly was a window of opportunity for Ukraine and they understandably tried to use it," he said.
Russian and Ukrainian vessels have been repeatedly targeted in the Black Sea since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Kastehelmi said that although a Baltic strike is unprecedented, he did not consider it a serious escalation.
Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy said late on the day of the attack that Moscow's claims that Kyiv used Baltic airspace to attack Russia were "baseless". He acknowledged that "incidents might occur when Russia diverts drones from its airspace using electronic warfare".
