image copyrightRussian military
On the 11th, a Ukrainian drone attacked a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. This was announced by the Finnish authorities. Few details of the attack have been revealed.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it targeted the Russian warship Naro-Fominsk as part of a broader drone operation against an oil export hub in Ustruga, Russia, on the Baltic coast.
This appears to be the first time a Ukrainian drone has attacked a Russian warship in the Baltic Sea, where civilian ships are allowed to navigate. There are speculations that Ukraine may expand its attack range in the future.
Finland is one of Ukraine's closest allies in Europe. Finnish officials say the incident is a direct result of Russia's continued all-out war.
The Finnish military has released few details about the incident, but the attack on the Russian warship appears to have occurred in a narrow area of water off the Finnish coast.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen assured that the situation in the Baltic Sea remains stable and safe and that there is no threat to maritime traffic.
Finnish defense officials are believed to have emphasized to the Ukrainian government that the Gulf of Finland is a relatively narrow waterway through which oil tankers and civilian vessels navigate, as well as undersea data cables.
Ukraine's SBU said the targeted Russian warship was a small corvette of the Bouyan M type, carrying Kalibr and Onyx cruise missiles. There are also unconfirmed reports that a Russian combat helicopter was shot down.
Defense Minister Martin Hellem of Estonia, which borders the Baltic Sea, told public broadcaster ERR that the Russian warship was hit at around 5:30 a.m. on the 11th, but did not specify the circumstances of the attack. "After that, we confirmed that smoke rose from the ship. The ship turned back toward St. Petersburg," he said.
The extent of damage and damages sustained by Russian naval vessels remains unclear. The Russian government rarely makes these details public.
"The fleet in the Baltic Sea had not been attacked before, but Ukraine saw an opportunity and tried to take advantage of it," said Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst and co-founder of the Black Bird watchdog group.
Russian and Ukrainian vessels have been repeatedly targeted in the Black Sea since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Although the attack in the Baltic Sea was unprecedented, Mr Kastehelmi told the BBC he did not consider it a serious escalation.
Ukrainian drones are regularly launched from northern Ukraine toward Russia. Several storage tanks at the oil terminal in Ustruga were believed to have been attacked during the nighttime attack on the 11th, and the fire at the port could be seen from across the border into Estonia.
According to Helem, Ukrainian drones attacked the Ustylga region from midnight until around 6 a.m. the next morning. Many of them flew close to the Estonian border but remained within Russian airspace.
He added that a drone briefly entered Estonian airspace from Latvia before heading towards Russia.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) aircraft deployed to the Baltic states were in flight at the time, but it was deemed unsafe for them to shoot down the drone, Hellem said.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Heorghii Tikhii said late on Wednesday that Moscow's claims that Ukraine used the Baltic airspace to attack Russia were "baseless." However, "such an event could occur if Russia uses electronic warfare to divert drones from its airspace."
(English article Russian warship hit by Ukrainian drone in Gulf of Finland)
