According to the article, about 1,000 of the passengers were military.
Moreover, an enemy-flagged ship in a declared war zone is a legitimate target.
I have no problem with the Soviets considering the ship a legitimate target at that point; the war in the east had no rules anyway. If I was the Soviet high command I would assume that either the passengers were military or they were civilians that may have been complicit in some of the atrocities from that period.
The collapse of the eastern front is interesting, as pockets of Germans were trapped further north (in Estonia/Latvia), while Finland as part of their separate peace with the USSR were expected to turn over German troops still in Finland.
Not exactly.
Two issues: first, minimizing the suffering of the innocent is the way to wage just war; second, proportionality is a consideration when targeting and civilians may be hurt.
What is the military gain when compared to the suffering to the innocent. That is a key question that is asked.
Therefore, not all “enemy flagged” ships are a legitimate target.