Russia has accused the British Military of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines last month.
On Saturday, the Russian government made the allegations, without evidence, that the Royal Navy sabotaged the underwater gas pipelines.
The claims were met with immediate pushback from the British government, however.
“According to available information, representatives of this unit of the British Navy took part in the planning, provision, and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 this year – blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines,” Russia claimed.
The British government responded by calling the allegations false.
In a statement, the UK’s Ministry of Defense accused Russia of trying to distract from Moscow’s failures in Ukraine.
“To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale,” the British defense ministry said.
“This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West.”
Russia also accused the British Military of assisting Ukrainian forces conducting a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, the biggest city in Russian-annexed Crimea, Saturday morning.
“The preparation of this terrorist act and the training of servicemen of the Ukrainian 73rd Special Center for Naval Operations were carried out under the guidance of British specialists located in the town of Ochakiv,” the Russian government claimed.
“As a result of the operational measures taken by the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, all the air drones were destroyed, though minor damage was done to the minesweeper Ivan Golubets.”
Video emerged online showing the drones traveling through the water looking for Russian ships to attack.
Unbelievable footage from one of the marine drones used in the attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.
(Via Ukrainian journalist Andriy Tsaplienko)
Full story: https://t.co/YdtcFELiSy pic.twitter.com/Nw5YbHeQMU
— James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) October 29, 2022
The small unmanned surface vessel found on shore near Sevastopol appears to be a US-supplied explosive drone boat. This might be one of the "unmanned coastal defense vessels” listed by the Pentagon in April as being supplied to Ukraine. Still wondering what is the mother ship? https://t.co/YaluF2f5Gx pic.twitter.com/dQGNBAb78a
— Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) September 23, 2022
https://twitter.com/TpyxaNews/status/1586350597627781120
Russia responded to the drone attack by cutting off grain exports from Ukraine.
The Kremlin announced that Russia is withdrawing from a U.N.-brokered agreement that “has seen more than 9 million tons of grain exported from Ukraine during the war and has brought down soaring global food prices.”
“In connection with the actions of Ukrainian armed forces, led by British specialists, directed, among other things, against Russian ships that ensure the functioning of the humanitarian corridor in question (which cannot be qualified otherwise than as a terrorist attack), the Russian side cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea initiative, and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period,” the Russians said.
Democrat President Joe Biden fired back at the development, calling it “purely outrageous.”
“There’s no merit to what they’re doing,” Biden told reporters in Delaware.
“The U.N. negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”
