Russia, Ukraine exchange strikes as Baltic nations issue drone alerts

Several Baltic nations have issued a flurry of alerts, urging citizens to seek shelter against threats from unidentified drones, as Russia and Ukraine traded attacks.

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s northwest, home to major Baltic Sea export facilities and a big oil refinery, setting the Ust-Luga port area on fire and injuring three, the Reuters news agency said on Wednesday.

Drone debris killed two in Russia’s Smolensk region bordering Belarus, Russian newswires reported, quoting the local governor.

In Ukraine, an overnight Russian air strike knocked out power in parts of the industrial stronghold of Kryvyi Rih, injuring one person in Kharkiv, the country’s second-biggest city, and six others in Zaporizhzhia, officials and ⁠⁠⁠⁠emergency services said.

Russia’s ⁠Ministry of Defence said ⁠its forces ⁠struck a cargo vessel in the Black Sea ‌southwest of Odesa that was carrying weapons and military equipment ⁠for Ukraine’s armed ⁠forces.

The ministry also said Russian ⁠drones hit ⁠three ⁠electricity substations in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih and ‌Odesa regions overnight.

Meanwhile, the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia issued alerts for drones entering from neighbouring Russia or Belarus. Lithuanian crisis officials said the warning covered Kaunas, the country’s second-largest city, home to about 300,000 people.

The alerts said NATO air defence jets had been activated. There were no reports of injuries.

Finland, another Russian neighbour, adopted temporary airspace and maritime curbs in the eastern Gulf of Finland but withdrew them later.

“The ‌restrictions were a precautionary measure to ensure the authorities’ ability to operate and the safety of bystanders,” its defence forces said on X.

The attacks come a day after Russia said it ‌shot down more than 140 drones in an ongoing attack on the country’s Leningrad region northwest of Moscow.

“A total of 146 drones have been downed over the Leningrad Region,” Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said on Telegram, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported, adding that “the counter-action is ongoing”.

It is unclear where the drones came from, but on Monday, a Ukrainian drone struck Russia’s second-largest oil refinery in Kirishi, also in the Leningrad region, according to Reuters. ⁠Local authorities said a woman had been killed in ⁠the attack.

‘Constructive’ Abu Dhabi talks

The escalation comes as US-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, entered their second and final day on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the first day of talks was “constructive and quite substantive”.

The attacks in Russia also came as TASS reported that Ukrainian forces had fired at least 31 artillery shells at Ukraine’s Moscow-occupied Donetsk region in 24 hours, wounding three civilians.

Of these attacks, 23 occurred in the Horlivka area, where a couple was also wounded in a drone strike on a vehicle, according to TASS.

Attacks were also reported in Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said on Telegram.