Ukrainian Drone Strikes Russian Warship in Gulf of Finland

Finland confirmed a Russian warship was hit in the Gulf of Finland on Wednesday, with Ukraine's SBU security service saying it targeted the vessel Naro-Fominsk as part of a wider drone operation against Russia's Ust-Luga oil export depot on the Baltic coast. Estonia's defence minister, Martin Herem, told public broadcaster ERR the ship was struck at about 05:30 (03:30 GMT). He didn't say how. Smoke poured from the ship afterwards and it turned back toward St Petersburg, Herem said.

The SBU described the Naro-Fominsk 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, and Moscow rarely releases such details.

The strike is thought to be the first time Ukrainian drones have attacked a Russian ship in a part of the Baltic Sea open to civilian maritime traffic, raising questions about whether Kyiv can widen its reach. Military analyst Emil Kastehelmi, co-founder of the Black Bird monitoring group, told the BBC the Baltic fleet had gone untouched until now. He said there was a window of opportunity Ukraine understandably tried to use, but he did not consider the attack a serious escalation.

Finnish officials have described the incident as a direct result of Russia's full-scale war, with Helsinki among Kyiv's closest European allies. Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen insisted the Baltic Sea remained stable and safe and that there was no threat to marine traffic. Defence officials are understood to have stressed to Kyiv that the Gulf is a narrow waterway used by oil tankers and civilian vessels, and home to subsea data cables. Finland's military has released few details, though the strike appears to have happened some distance from the Finnish coast.

The drone operation stretched across the border. Several storage tanks at the Ust-Luga terminal are thought to have been hit overnight, and fires at the port were visible from Estonia. Herem said the drones came from midnight until about 06:00, mostly hugging the Estonian border while staying in Russian airspace, and that one briefly entered Estonian airspace from Latvia before heading for Russia. Nato aircraft based in the Baltic states were airborne at the time, but Herem said destroying the drones was not considered safe.

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy called Moscow's claims that Kyiv used Baltic state airspace to attack Russia baseless late on Wednesday. He did acknowledge that incidents might occur when Russia diverts drones from its own airspace using electronic warfare. Russian and Ukrainian vessels have been repeatedly targeted in the Black Sea since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.