MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that explosions on Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last month were caused by British navy soldiers, directly implicating a member country of the NATO in the sabotage of Russian critical infrastructures.
He provided no evidence to support this charge.
According to the ministry, “British specialists” members of the same unit based in Ochakiv, in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine, have also led drone attacks targeting ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the bay of Sevastopol, Crimea, Saturday.
These attacks involving nine aerial drones and seven underwater drones were repelled by Russian forces and caused only minor damage to a minesweeper, he added.
“According to information available to us, members of this British Navy unit took part in the planning, equipping and carrying out of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 this year, making blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines,” the ministry said.
The British Ministry of Defense has denied these accusations.
“To distract from its disastrous handling of the unlawful invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense is reduced to peddling false accusations of spectacular proportions,” a UK ministry spokesman said. .
For London, “this new invented story says more about the ongoing disputes within the Russian government than about the West”.
MOSCOW WANTS TO SEIZE THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Moscow would take the matter to the United Nations Security Council, adding on social media that Moscow wanted to draw attention to “a series of terrorist attacks terrorists committed against the Russian Federation in the Black and Baltic Seas involving Great Britain”.
A sharp drop in pressure in Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 had been detected on September 26 and seismologists had recorded tremors caused by explosions in the Baltic Sea, which raised suspicions of sabotage of the two structures.
Reuters was unable to verify the veracity of the assertions of the various parties on the responsibility for the damage suffered by the gas pipelines.
Russia had previously pointed the finger at the West’s responsibility for the explosions on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. But it had so far not detailed its accusations.
Sweden and Denmark both concluded that four leaks on Nord Stream 1 and 2 were caused by explosions but named no possible culprits. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg denounced an act of sabotage.
The Kremlin has repeatedly called Russia’s blame for the blasts “stupid” and Russian officials have said the blasts benefit the United States, which they say wants to increase sales of liquefied natural gas (LNG). ) to Europe.
The United States has denied any involvement.
(Reuters report, French version Marc Angrand)