The British Navy stands accused by the Russian government, without evidence, of blowing up the Nord Stream earthy state pipeline nether the Baltic Sea, a assertion the U.K. rejected arsenic "false."
"According to disposable information, representatives ... of the British Navy took portion successful the planning, proviso and implementation of a violent onslaught successful the Baltic Sea connected September 26 this twelvemonth — blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 state pipelines," the Russian Defense Ministry said connected Saturday, according to media reports.
The accusation did not see immoderate further accusation oregon grounds to enactment claims of authorities sabotage. The Russian authorities besides said that U.K. operatives helped program a drone onslaught connected its fleet astatine the Black Sea larboard of Sevastopol successful Crimea connected Saturday.
The U.K. Defense Ministry rapidly denied Moscow's claim.
"To detract from their disastrous handling of the amerciable penetration of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense is resorting to peddling mendacious claims of an epic scale," the British ministry said successful a tweet. "This invented communicative says much astir arguments going connected wrong the Russian authorities than it does astir the West."
Russia had already blamed the West successful wide presumption for undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipes past month. Those blasts person apt rendered the vigor infrastructure unusable, according to the German government.
An probe by Danish and Swedish authorities is ongoing into the explosions, which took spot wrong the 2 countries' exclusive economical zones adjacent to the Baltic Sea land of Bornholm.
Russia had already stopped state transit done the pipeline sparking concerns earlier this twelvemonth that it would usage state proviso to blackmail Europe arsenic its brutal warfare connected Ukraine continues.
While the first phase of Nord Stream had been operating for astir 11 years, the 2nd signifier of the task — dubbed Nord Stream 2 — had not yet been brought into commercialized operation.
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