Ukrainian drones struck the Russian missile ship Naro-Fominsk in the Gulf of Finland on Wednesday, in what is believed to be the first Ukrainian attack on a Russian warship in a part of the Baltic Sea used by civilian shipping.
Finland’s military said it had detected a strike on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland area and was monitoring the situation, adding that Finland faced no immediate military threat.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it carried out the attack on the Buyan-M-class small missile ship as part of a special operation. Estonia’s Defence Forces later said the corvette was hit by at least four drones, suffered disabling hits with multiple casualties, and had to be assisted back toward St Petersburg.
The same overnight raid also hit the Ust-Luga oil port, where five fuel tanks were damaged, a hydrocracking unit was set on fire and three workers were injured, according to regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko.
Ukrainian drones strayed into the airspace of Finland and the Baltic states during the operation. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania told citizens to take shelter, and NATO warplanes were scrambled.
The strike came as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Abu Dhabi for the first US-brokered talks since February. The talks produced no breakthrough apart from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners. Russia has not commented publicly on the warship strike.
Sources: Al Jazeera, The Maritime Executive
