The British Navy stands accused by the Russian authorities, with out proof, of blowing up the Nord Stream pure fuel pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea, a declare the U.Ok. rejected as “false.”
“Based on accessible data, representatives … of the British Navy took half within the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist assault within the Baltic Sea on September 26 this yr — blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 fuel pipelines,” the Russian Protection Ministry said on Saturday, in response to media studies.
The accusation didn’t embrace any additional data or proof to assist claims of state sabotage. The Russian authorities additionally mentioned that U.Ok. operatives helped plan a drone assault on its fleet on the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea on Saturday.
The U.Ok. Protection Ministry rapidly denied Moscow’s declare.
“To detract from their disastrous dealing with of the unlawful invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Protection is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale,” the British ministry mentioned in a tweet. “This invented story says extra about arguments happening contained in the Russian authorities than it does in regards to the West.”
Russia had already blamed the West on the whole phrases for undersea explosions that broken the Nord Stream pipes final month. These blasts have probably rendered the power infrastructure unusable, according to the German authorities.
An investigation by Danish and Swedish authorities is ongoing into the explosions, which occurred inside the 2 international locations’ unique financial zones near the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm.
Russia had already stopped fuel transit via the pipeline sparking issues earlier this yr that it could use fuel provide to blackmail Europe as its brutal battle on Ukraine continues.
Whereas the first phase of Nord Stream had been working for almost 11 years, the second section of the challenge — dubbed Nord Stream 2 — had not but been introduced into industrial operation.