Saska says Gulf of Finland tensions will not ease

Former navy commander Jüri Saska says tensions in the Gulf of Finland are unlikely to ease while Russia relies on Baltic Sea oil routes to keep its war machine running, ERR reports. A Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian warship also showed that Russian vessels are not safe in the region, he said.

Speaking on the television programme Ringvaade, Saska said the attack suggested Ukraine had developed the ability to guide drones in real time and hit moving targets at a distance. He said the technology could allow drones to be redirected and sent in repeated attacks, while swarms could overwhelm a ship’s air defences.

The vessel hit was the Naro-Fominsk, a small Russian warship that Saska said was built to carry Kalibr cruise missiles and Onyx anti-ship missiles. It was able to return to port under its own power. Saska said the ship was not designed to provide air defence for the Ust-Luga port and had limited protection against a large number of drones.

Saska said Russia built smaller ships equipped with long-range weapons after its 2014 aggression against Ukraine and the first sanctions restricted access to large diesel engines from Western countries. Their size also allows them to be moved between seas through Russia’s inland waterways. He said air-defence capabilities on later, modernised ships in the same class are significantly stronger.

Saska said he could not confirm the drone’s route or whether it crossed Estonian airspace or waters, adding that personnel monitoring the region would be able to establish that. Based on public reports, he thought it had most likely come from the south.