Russia's claim that British navy personnel blew up Nord Stream gas pipelines dismissed by MoD
Russia is "peddling false claims of an epic scale" after the country's defence ministry claimed that British navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines on the bed of the Baltic Sea in September, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
Russia's defence ministry did not give any evidence for its unsubstantiated allegation, which accuses a key NATO member of sabotaging vital Russian infrastructure.
"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," the ministry said.
In response, the MoD posted on Twitter: "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.
"This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West."
The Kremlin has previously accused the West of being behind the explosions that ruptured the Russian-built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines last month.
Russia, however, has never given specific details of who it thought damaged the pipelines, which used to be the largest routes for Russian gas supplies to European countries.
Earlier this month, German federal prosecutors said they had opened an investigation against persons unknown on suspicion of deliberately causing an explosion and anti-constitutional sabotage.
Prosecutors said that there was sufficient evidence that the pipelines were damaged by at least two deliberate detonations.
They added that the aim of their investigation is to help identify the perpetrator or perpetrators as well as a possible motive.
The German investigation came on top of a separate probe being carried out in Sweden.
The governments of Denmark and Sweden previously said they suspected that several hundred pounds of explosives were involved in carrying out a deliberate act of sabotage.
The Russian defence ministry's statement came as at least two Russian ships suffered damage in a major port in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, on Saturday.
The ministry said two ships received “minor damage” during an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on navy and civilian vessels docked in Sevastopol at 4:20am.
The city, Crimea’s largest, hosts the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The ministry said 16 drones were used in the attack and that Russian forces had “repelled” them.
An adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry gave a conflicting account, claiming that that “careless handling of explosives” had caused blasts on four warships in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram that the vessels included a frigate, a landing ship and a ship that carried cruise missiles used in a deadly July attack on a western Ukrainian city.
Neither side’s claim could be immediately verified.
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