Ships given missiles alert

A warning has been issued by Swedish authorities to civilian maritime traffic on the Baltic Sea due to the Russian navy’s military drills and missile tests.

Marie Hallerfelt, of the Swedish Maritime Administration, said Russian artillery exercises in three separate areas in the southern and southeastern Baltic Sea means those regions will be temporarily dangerous to navigation from early today until late Friday.

The drills, which reportedly include firing missiles from Russian vessels, are taking place between Sweden, Poland and Latvia and come close to the southern Swedish city of Karlskrona, which hosts a key naval base.