Finland detects strike on Russian warship in Gulf of Finland as Zelenskyy meets US envoys

Finland's military has said its forces detected a rare strike on a Russian navy vessel in the Baltic Sea, an incident that unfolded 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 told the Reuters news agency in an email that its forces "detected .. a strike on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland area and has monitored the development of the situation". The spokesperson added that Finland is not under "any immediate military threat".

The statement gave no further detail about where the strike originated, the precise location or timing of the incident, or how Finnish forces detected it. Reuters reported that it was not immediately clear whether there were casualties or what had caused Wednesday's strike.

Estonia, which shares a narrow arm of the Baltic Sea with Finland, reported through local media that the vessel involved was a small Russian navy ship that 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.

The incident comes against a backdrop of heightened aerial activity in the region. In recent days, Russia said it had intercepted at least 146 Ukrainian drones in the northwestern Leningrad region. On Wednesday, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued warnings to citizens to take shelter because of drones in their airspace, and NATO warplanes were scrambled in response.

On the diplomatic front, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday before travelling on to meet Zelenskyy in Ireland.

The shuttle diplomacy by the US envoys followed trilateral negotiations held in the United Arab Emirates this week. Those talks 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 take place in two to three weeks. If finalised, it would be the latest in a long line of such exchanges between the warring sides.

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