Now Moscow claims that Britain’s ROYAL NAVY blew up Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines as Ministry of Defence says ‘invented’ slur ‘says more about arguments going on inside Russia’s government’
- Russian defence ministry said UK’s Navy helped plan and implement the ‘attack’
- Also claimed the same troops were responsible for a drone attack this morning
- British Ministry of Defence said Moscow has ‘resorted to peddling false claims’
- Nord Stream pipes exploded last month, leading to four gas leaks in Baltic Sea
Russia’s army has accused the British Navy of being ‘involved’ in explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and of helping Ukraine plan a massive drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.
Although Russia’s defence ministry did not provide any evidence for the claim, it said representatives of a ‘unit of the British Navy took part in the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 that blew up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines’.
The British Ministry of Defence has described it as an ‘invented story’ which ‘says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West’.
In a statement the Government department added: ‘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.’
Moscow also alleged that British troops were involved in a drone attack on their Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol today, which Russia claims involved nine drones and damaged one warship.
The Russian defence ministry has blamed the British Navy for the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and the drone attack in Sevastopol this morning (pictured)
A spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry said representatives of a ‘unit of the British Navy took part in the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 that blew up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines’
A spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry blamed British troops for today’s drone attack in Sevastopol
A spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry said: ‘At 4.20am today, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack on Black Sea Fleet ships and civilian vessels.
‘Preparation for the terrorist act and training of military personnel of the Ukrainian 73rd Special Operations Centre Marine Unit was carried out under the guidance of British specialists who were in the city of Ochakiv, Mykolaiv region, Ukraine.’
He warned: ‘It should be stressed that the Black Sea Fleet vessels that suffered the terrorist attack are involved in ensuring the security of the grain corridor as part of the international initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports.’
Russia has said Western countries have not allowed it to take part in international investigations of the explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines in September.
Instead, it has for weeks hinted that its security services have a different version of what caused the September explosions, while some Western countries have called it sabotage and pointed the finger at Russia.
Both Swedish and Danish authorities have been investigating four holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two of them in the Swedish.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence dismissed the claim, describing it as an ‘invented story’ of an ‘epic scale’
The pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Although the pipelines were not in operation, they contained gas before falling victim to the apparent sabotage.
Fingers have been pointed at Russia, whose state-owned energy company Gazprom is the main owner of the pipelines. The Kremlin, however, has called such allegations ‘stupid’, previously blaming the United States for the damage and now making claims about the UK’s involvement.
In videos published by Swedish newspaper Expressen last week, a massive tear and twisted metal can be seen on the pipeline, 80 metres down under the ocean.
Footage (pictured), released from Sweden last week, showed at least 165 feet of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline was destroyed or buried under the seabed, following an explosion on September 26 – assumed by many to be a Russian attack
Pictured: An aerial photo provided by the Swedish Coast Guard on Sept. 28, 2022 shows a gas leak on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. An inspection of two of the leaks at the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe has reinforced suspicions that they were acts of sabotage
Through the gloom, a deep trench can be seen in the seabed where the gas pipeline used to be, before the explosions.
According to the newspaper, the videos show how over 165 feet of the pipeline is either missing or buried under the seabed, and long tears can be observed on the seabed leading up to the burst pipe.
‘It is only an extreme force that can bend metal that thick in the way we are seeing,’ Trond Larsen, drone operator with the Norwegian company Blueye Robotics, told Expressen.
Larsen, who piloted the submersible drone which captured the video, also said you could also see ‘a very large impact on the seabed around the pipe.’
Expressen said the explosions measured 2.3 on the Richter scale.
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