A Russian warship was attacked in the Gulf of Finland on Wednesday, in what Finnish officials described as a new and unusual strike in waters open to civilian traffic. Ukraine's SBU said the ship was Naro-Fominsk and that the attack was part of a broader drone operation against Russia's Ust-Luga oil export depot.
The timing matters because the attack came in a narrow stretch of sea used by oil tankers, civilian vessels and subsea data cables. It was also thought to be the first time Ukrainian drones had attacked a Russian ship in an area of the Baltic Sea open to civilian maritime traffic, a step that raises the stakes far beyond a single vessel.
Martin Herem said the ship was hit at about 05:30 on Wednesday. He said smoke came from it afterward and that it later went back towards St Petersburg. The extent of any casualties or damage on the Russian navy ship remained unclear, and that uncertainty leaves the main question of the incident unanswered even as the attack itself is now established.
Herem also said Ukrainian drones attacked the Ust-Luga region from midnight until about 06:00, with several storage tanks at the terminal thought to have been hit overnight and fires visible over the border in Estonia. He said one drone briefly entered Estonian airspace from Latvia before heading towards Russia, while Nato aircraft based in the Baltic states were in the air and were not used to destroy the drones because it was not considered safe to do so.
For now, Finnish officials say there was no threat to marine traffic and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen has said the Baltic Sea remained stable and safe. But the strike landed in a waterway that is neither remote nor empty, and the unresolved damage on Naro-Fominsk is what will determine whether this was a warning shot or the start of something more dangerous.
