Ukraine Strikes Russian Corvette With Drone in Gulf of Finland
Ukraine struck a Russian navy corvette with a drone in the Gulf of Finland on Wednesday, the first known maritime attack in Baltic waters used by civilian shipping.
Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said that it targeted the Naro-Fominsk, a Buyan-M-class small missile corvette carrying Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles, during a broader drone operation against oil export infrastructure.
Estonian Defense Minister Martin Herem told public broadcaster ERR that the ship was hit around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday and subsequently headed back toward St. Petersburg, as reported by the BBC. The extent of any casualties or damage to the vessel remains unclear, and Moscow has not commented publicly on the incident.
Finnish Officials Confirm Baltic Sea Remains Safe After Strike
Finnish defense officials confirmed they detected the strike near Gogland Island, situated about 28 miles from Finland’s coast. Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen maintained that the situation in the Baltic Sea remained stable and safe for marine traffic despite the attack.
Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said that officials had previously stressed to Kyiv the sensitivity of the narrow waterway shared with Estonia concerning environmental safety and civilian shipping, while assuring the public that the surrounding waters remained safe for transit.
Parallel to the maritime strike, energy infrastructure across Ukraine suffered new outages following overnight Russian air attacks affecting 12 regions, including Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv, according to deputy energy minister Artem Nekrasov. “Energy workers are working at an intensified pace, but new attacks and constant air raid alerts are complicating and delaying repairs,” deputy energy minister Artem Nekrasov said.