Russian warship hit by Ukrainian drone in Gulf of Finland

Finnish officials have confirmed that a Russian warship was attacked in the Gulf of Finland on Wednesday, although little is known about the strike.

Ukraine's SBU security service said it targeted the ship Naro-Fominsk as part of a broader drone operation against Russia's Ust-Luga oil export depot on the Baltic coast.

The attack, thought to be the first time Ukrainian drones have attacked a Russian ship in an area of the Baltic Sea open to civilian maritime traffic, has raised questions about whether Ukraine could expand its strikes.

Helsinki has been one of Kyiv's closest European allies, and Finnish officials have described the incident as a direct result of Russia's continued full-scale war.

Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen was adamant that the situation in the Baltic Sea remained stable and safe and that there was no threat of any kind to marine traffic.

The country's military has given few details of the incident, but it appears to have taken place in a narrow stretch some distance from the Finnish coast.

Defence officials are understood to have stressed to Kyiv that the Gulf is a relatively narrow waterway used by oil tankers and civilian vessels, and is also home to subsea data cables.

Ukraine's SBU described the Russian ship as a Buyan-M type small corvette that carried Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles. There were also unconfirmed reports of Russian combat helicopters being destroyed.

Martin Herem, the defence minister of Estonia, which borders the Gulf, told public broadcaster ERR that the ship was hit at about 05:30 (03:30 GMT) on Wednesday but did not say how it was attacked: "We know that smoke came from the ship afterwards. The ship itself went back towards St Petersburg."

The extent of casualties or damage sustained by the Russian navy ship in the early hours of Wednesday remains unclear, and Moscow rarely gives such details.