The Russian government says it is planning to present “evidence” that special forces from the United Kingdom were responsible for attacks on Moscow’s forces and naval assets in Crimea.
The Kremlin is planning to summon the British ambassador “in the near future” in order to present evidence that also threatens to collapse a Ukrainian grain export deal that was brokered by the United Nations.
President Vladimir Putin’s government claims to have “firm evidence” that the British military assisted with a large-scale drone strike against the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet last week off the coast of Crimea.
“The U.K. ambassador will be summoned and will be given the appropriate materials,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding the meeting would take place “in the near future.”
“The basic materials will be handed over as evidence to the British side and will also be shown to the general public,” she added.
Britain’s ambassador to Russia is Deborah Bronnert, The Moscow Times reported.
Zakharova also said that Russia would be publishing the “materials” after its meeting with the ambassador.
Over the weekend, the Russian military said Ukrainian forces had launched drones against its fleet “under the leadership of British specialists in the city of Ochakiv” in southern Ukraine.
The Kremlin added that “according to our information,” the same British unit had “taken part in the planning” of September explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. However, the U.K. countered that these are “false claims on an epic scale.”
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