Russian warship struck by Ukrainian drone in Gulf of Finland, first such attack in open Baltic waters

At about 05:30 on Wednesday morning, a Russian warship was hit in the Gulf of Finland. Estonia's defence minister, Martin Herem, told the public broadcaster ERR that smoke rose from the vessel afterwards and that it turned back toward St Petersburg. He did not say how it had been attacked. Finnish officials have since confirmed the strike, though they have said very little about it.

Ukraine's SBU security service has claimed the attack. It says it targeted the Naro-Fominsk, which it describes as a Buyan-M type small corvette armed with Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles. According to the SBU, the strike was part of a wider drone operation against the Ust-Luga oil export depot on Russia's Baltic coast. There were also unconfirmed reports that Russian combat helicopters were destroyed. How badly the ship was damaged, and whether anyone was killed or hurt, remains unclear. Moscow rarely releases such information.

The attack is thought to be the first time Ukrainian drones have hit a Russian ship in a stretch of the Baltic open to civilian maritime traffic. Russian and Ukrainian vessels have been targeted repeatedly in the Black Sea since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, but the Baltic fleet had been untouched until now. Military analyst Emil Kastehelmi, co-founder of the Black Bird monitoring group, said there seemingly was a window of opportunity for Ukraine and that it understandably tried to use it. He told the BBC he did not regard the strike as a serious escalation, even though it was unprecedented.

Finland's military has given few details, but the incident appears to have happened in a narrow part of the Gulf some distance from the Finnish coast. Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen was adamant that the Baltic situation remains stable and safe, and that there is no threat of any kind to marine traffic. Finnish officials described the incident as a direct result of Russia's continued full-scale war. Helsinki is one of Kyiv's closest European allies.

Defence officials are understood to have stressed to Kyiv that the Gulf is a relatively narrow waterway. Oil tankers and civilian vessels use it, and subsea data cables run beneath it. That is the source of the questions now being asked about whether Ukraine might widen its strikes in these waters.

The ship was one part of a larger night of attacks. Ukrainian drones, regularly launched into Russia from northern Ukraine, are thought to have hit several storage tanks at the Ust-Luga terminal overnight, and fires at the port were visible across the border in Estonia. Herem said drones attacked the Ust-Luga region from midnight until about 06:00, mostly flying close to the Estonian border while remaining in Russian airspace. One drone briefly entered Estonian airspace from Latvia before heading toward Russia.

Nato aircraft based in the Baltic states were airborne at the time, Herem said, but it was not considered safe for them to shoot the drones down. Russia has alleged that Kyiv used Baltic airspace to attack it. Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy called the claim baseless late on Wednesday, while acknowledging that incidents might occur when Russia diverts drones from its own airspace using electronic warfare.

What to watch now is whether the damage to the Naro-Fominsk and any casualties become known, and whether Ukraine strikes again in Baltic waters.