Ukraine Warupdated 26m ago3 min read
Archive photo · 8 April 2020Ukraine’s SBU Says It Struck Russian Corvette Naro-Fominsk in Gulf of Finland
“The Ukrainian word the agency uses means a hit, not a sinking”
“Ukraine struck a Kalibr-armed warship while it was operating at sea, marking a potentially historic expansion”
Photo: Компания «Новотранс», CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Ukrainian SBU claimed a drone strike on Naro-Fominsk in the Gulf of Finland. Finland detected a strike on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland; casualties unknown.
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Naro-Fominsk hit in Gulf
Ukraine’s Security Service said it “planned and carried out” a strike on the Russian missile corvette Naro-Fominsk on the night of November 10 to 11 in the Gulf of Finland, as the same overnight raid set oil tanks on fire at the Baltic export port of Ust-Luga. Estonia’s defence minister Martin Herem told ERR that an explosion happened on a Baltic Fleet vessel at about 05:30 on November 11 and that “The ship itself went back towards St Petersburg.” Finland’s military said it detected “a strike” on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland area a day earlier, while adding that the security situation remained stable.
“The ship itself went back towards St Petersburg.”
The SBU described the targeted ship as a Buyan-M type small corvette carrying Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles, and the SBU post did not give a position or a time for the hit. The SBU did not specify the weapon used or provide evidence of damage, and the extent of casualties or damage sustained by the Russian navy ship remained unclear in the accounts provided.
Drones, airspace, and claims
Ukraine’s SBU said it targeted the ship Naro-Fominsk as part of a broader drone operation against Russia’s Ust-Luga oil export depot, and the BBC said the attack was thought to be the first time Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian ship in an area of the Baltic Sea open to civilian maritime traffic. The BBC reported that Defence officials 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 foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy said Moscow’s allegations that Kyiv had used the airspace of the Baltic states to attack Russia were “baseless”, while acknowledging “incidents might occur when Russia diverts drones from its airspace using electronic warfare”.
Estonia’s Defence Minister Martin Herem told ERR that Estonia did not authorize the use of its airspace during Ukraine’s attack on Ust-Luga, and the account also said a drone briefly entered Estonian airspace from the direction of Latvia before continuing toward Russia. The BBC added that Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said the situation in the Baltic Sea remained stable and safe and that there was no threat of any kind to marine traffic.
What comes next for Baltic
The strike was tied in the accounts to a wider operation against port, oil-processing, and transport infrastructure at Ust-Luga, with the Armed Forces of Ukraine saying five oil-product tanks with a combined capacity of 150,000 m2 were damaged and a large fire broke out. The Janes account said the Finnish Defence Forces detected a strike on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland on 11 November and monitored developments, while stating there was no immediate military threat to Finland and that the security situation in the Baltic Sea remained stable. The BBC said the incident has raised questions about whether Ukraine could expand its strikes, and it quoted military analyst Emil Kastehelmi saying, “The Baltic Sea fleet has been untouched up to this point but there seemingly was a window of opportunity for Ukraine and they understandably tried to use it.”
The Defense Express account framed the Naro-Fominsk strike as the first time Ukraine hit a Russian warship actively deployed at sea in the Baltic since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, while also noting that earlier Ukrainian attacks had targeted ships undergoing repairs, construction, or maintenance. The accounts also left open whether the Naro-Fominsk was destroyed or how severe any damage was, because the SBU did not disclose the location or how severe the damage was and the extent of casualties or damage remained unclear.
