Finland detects strike on Russian warship as Zelensky meets US envoys | Russia-Ukraine War

Reports of an alleged incident follow meetings by US envoys with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine.

The Finnish military says it detected a rare strike against a Russian navy ship 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 against a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland region and have been monitoring developments,” adding that Finland faces “no immediate military threat.”

The statement did not provide further details on the origin of the strike, where or when the incident occurred, or how it was detected.

Reuters said it was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties or what caused Wednesday’s strike.

Estonia shares a narrow arm of the Baltic Sea with Finland. Local media reported that the ship was a small Russian navy ship that had returned to St. Petersburg after the alleged attack.

Ukrainian security services said they carried out the attack, according to Finnish TV channel 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 warned their citizens to take shelter due to the presence of drones in their airspace, and NATO warplanes were dispatched in response.

Shuttle diplomacy

On Thursday, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ireland.

American shuttle diplomacy followed trilateral negotiations in the United Arab Emirates this week, which produced no major progress aside from an agreement to exchange a large number of prisoners.

Russia’s official TASS news agency reported that the prisoner exchange is expected to take place in two to three weeks. If finalized, it would be the last in a long series of such exchanges.

“We are also working on what would be the largest prisoner exchange of war, potentially reuniting thousands of people with their families,” Kushner told X on Thursday, following his meetings.