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    Russia accuses British Navy of ‘terrorist attack’ on Nordstream pipeline.The UK Ministry of Defense calls it a ‘Russian distraction’

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    Russia has blamed Britain for the Nord Stream explosion in September this year, claiming that British naval experts helped Ukrainian forces blow up the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

    “According to available information, representatives of this unit of the Royal Navy took part in the planning, preparation and execution of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on 26 September this year, using the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipes. We blew up the line,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on October 29.

    Russia and the US-led Western powers are blaming each other for the explosion of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, which carry gas from Russia to Europe.

    As previously reported by the EurAsian Times, the US-led NATO nations have claimed Russia may have been behind the explosion, but have declined to comment publicly.

    The cause was “obvious vandalism,” said Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor. NATO declared it “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible”.

    node stream
    File Image: Nord-Stream

    Even Sweden, one of the economies in which the blast occurred, only issued a “serious suspicion of sabotage” after completing its investigation into the incident, without specifying the country responsible for the sabotage.

    Moscow now accuses Britain of blowing up the gas pipeline, claiming that British naval experts were involved in the “planning, preparation and execution” of the attack.

    The British side denied the accusations by Russia, saying they were intended to divert attention from Russia’s military failures in Ukraine.

    “The Russian Ministry of Defense resorts to spreading false claims on a grand scale to undermine their disastrous treatment of an illegal invasion of Ukraine,” it said. “This fabricated story says more about ongoing discussions within the Russian government than about the West,” said the UK Defense Ministry.

    Russia’s accusations are part of Ukraine’s official statement about a massive drone strike against the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, which damaged at least two Russian warships.

    Massive attack on Sevastopol

    The Sevastapol attack involved 16 drones, including nine unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and seven autonomous maritime drones, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

    Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvodjaev said the attack on Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet was the largest since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry said British experts from the same unit involved in the Nord Stream gas explosion also directed a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian Black Sea Fleet ship in Crimea early on October 29. rice field.

    “The preparation of this terrorist act and the training of military personnel of the 73rd Special Maritime Operations Center of Ukraine were carried out under the guidance of British experts in the city of Ochakiv, Mikolayiv Region of Ukraine,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said. Stated.

    The Russian ministry claimed to have destroyed all nine UAVs and seven unmanned vessels and reported minor damage to the Black Sea Fleet’s Ivan Golubets minesweeper.

    In addition to the Ivan Golubets minesweeper, an OSINT report based on video of the attack suggests that a Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicle (USV) laden with explosives also attacked the Project 11356R frigate, presumably Admiral Makarov.

    In one of the videos captured by the USV’s on-board camera, the USV can be seen being fired upon by Russian warships, motor boats and even helicopters.

    In another video, a Russian military helicopter can be seen flying over the USV, which later explodes.

    A U.S. military aid package to Ukraine announced in April included an unmanned coastal defense vessel. At a press conference on April 13, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the USVs “can be used for a variety of coastal defense purposes,” but did not provide additional details.

    The first evidence of the Ukrainian military’s use of USVs in the war came to light in September when previously unknown USV photos began circulating on social media. A USV was reportedly found on the coast near Sevastopol, which Russian authorities claimed had destroyed.

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    Previously unknown USV discovered near Sevastopol, Crimea (Twitter)

    At the time, the Eurasia Times reported that USVs carrying such explosives were being used by Russian warships, which the Ukrainian military is out of range of ground-launched anti-ship missiles such as the domestically produced Neptune and the US-made Harpoon, and by emergency vessels such as Sevastopol. safe harbor area.

    According to prominent naval analyst HI Sutton, the type of USV used by Ukraine in the October 29 attack was the same one found near Sevastopol in September.

    The vessel targeted in the latest drone strike was securing the “grain corridor” as part of an international initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.





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