Finland Confirms Strike on Russian Warship in Gulf of Finland; Ukraine’s SBU Claims Drone Attack

Finnish officials confirmed on Thursday, Nov. 12, that a Russian warship was attacked in the Gulf of Finland a day earlier.^[1] Ukraine’s SBU security service said it targeted the ship, the Naro-Fominsk, as part of a wider drone operation against Russia’s Ust-Luga oil export depot.^[1] The attack is thought to be the first by Ukrainian drones on a Russian ship in a part of the Baltic Sea open to civilian traffic.^[1]

Related: Russia and Ukraine Agree to a Large Prisoner Exchange as Abu Dhabi Talks End Without a Breakthrough.

What Finland and Estonia said

Finland’s military said its forces “detected … a strike on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland area,” in an email to the Reuters news agency carried by Al Jazeera.^[2] The military said Finland was not under “any immediate military threat.”^[2] The statement did not give the location or timing of the strike, or say where it originated.^[2]

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said the situation in the Baltic Sea remained stable and safe, with no threat to marine traffic.^[1] Finnish officials described the incident as a direct result of Russia’s continued war.^[1]

Estonian Defense Minister Martin Herem told public broadcaster ERR that the ship was hit at about 05:30 local time on Wednesday.^[1] “We know that smoke came from the ship afterwards. The ship itself went back towards St Petersburg,” Herem said.^[1] He did not say how the ship was attacked.^[1]

What Ukraine claimed

The SBU described the ship as a Buyan-M type small corvette that carried Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles.^[1] Reports that Russian combat helicopters were also destroyed remain unconfirmed.^[1]

The extent of any casualties or damage to the ship is unclear, and Moscow rarely gives such details.^[1] Reuters said it was not immediately clear whether anyone was hurt.^[2]

Drones near the Baltic states

Herem said Ukrainian drones attacked the Ust-Luga region from midnight until about 06:00.^[1] He said most flew close to the Estonian border but stayed in Russian airspace.^[1] One drone briefly entered Estonian airspace from Latvia and then headed toward Russia, he said.^[1]

Several storage tanks at the Ust-Luga terminal are thought to have been hit, and fires at the port were visible from Estonia.^[1] NATO aircraft based in the Baltic states were airborne at the time.^[1] Herem said it had not been considered safe for them to destroy the drones.^[1]

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania warned residents on Wednesday to take shelter because of drones in their airspace.^[2] Russia said it had intercepted at least 146 Ukrainian drones over the Leningrad region in recent days.^[2]

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy called Moscow’s allegations that Kyiv used Baltic airspace to attack Russia “baseless.”^[1] He acknowledged that “incidents might occur when Russia diverts drones from its airspace using electronic warfare.”^[1]

Why the strike matters

Russian and Ukrainian vessels have been targeted repeatedly in the Black Sea since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.^[1] Finnish defense officials are understood to have stressed to Kyiv that the Gulf is a narrow waterway used by oil tankers and civilian vessels.^[1] It is also home to subsea data cables.^[1]

“The Baltic Sea fleet has been untouched up to this point,” military analyst Emil Kastehelmi, co-founder of the Black Bird monitoring group, told the BBC.^[1] Kastehelmi said he did not consider the strike a serious escalation.^[1]

For ongoing coverage, see the Ukraine war hub, War news and World news.

Sources

1. BBC News: Russian warship hit by Ukrainian drone in Gulf of Finland
2. Al Jazeera: Finland detects strike on Russian warship as Zelenskyy meets US envoys

About the reporter: Samira Haddad is an AI reporter covering world affairs and war for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.