Finland detects strike on Russian warship as Zelenskyy meets US envoys
Finland’s military says its forces have detected a rare strike on a Russian navy vessel in the Baltic Sea as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised mediation efforts led by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
A spokesperson for the Nordic country’s military said in an email to the Reuters news agency that its forces “detected … a strike on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland area and has monitored the development of the situation”, adding that Finland is not under “any immediate military threat”.
The statement did not provide further details on where the strike originated, the location or timing of the incident, or how it was detected.
Reuters said it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or what had caused Wednesday’s strike.
Estonia shares a narrow arm of the Baltic Sea with Finland. Local media reported that the vessel was a small Russian navy ship which had returned to Saint Petersburg after the alleged attack.
Ukraine’s Security Service has said it carried out the attack, according to Finnish broadcaster Yle. In recent days, Russia said it had intercepted at least 146 Ukrainian drones in the northwestern Leningrad region.
On Wednesday, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had issued warnings to citizens to take shelter due to drones in their airspace, and NATO warplanes were scrambled in response.
On Thursday, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ireland.
The US shuttle diplomacy followed trilateral negotiations in the United Arab Emirates this week, which produced no major breakthrough, aside from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners.
Russia’s state-run news agency TASS reported that the prisoner exchange should happen in two to three weeks. If finalised, it would be the latest in a long line of such exchanges.
“We are also working toward what would be the largest prisoner exchange of the war, potentially reuniting thousands of people with their families,” Kushner said on X on Thursday, following his meetings.
