Russia says UK navy blew up Nord Stream pipeline
STORY: Russia's defense ministry said on Saturday (October 29) that British navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month.
A claim that London said was false, and designed to distract from Russian military failures in Ukraine.
Russia did not give evidence for its remarks.
Here's the country's defense ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov.
"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 Russian ministry also said that "British specialists" from the same unit directed Ukrainian drone attacks on ships from Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea earlier on Saturday.
The Nord Stream accusations came amidst the worst crisis in relations between the West and Russia since the depths of the Cold War.
Leading NATO member Britain firmly denied the claim that it had targeted critical Russian infrastructure, adding, quote:
"This invented story says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West."
A spokeswoman for Russian foreign ministry said Moscow will seek reaction from the U.N. Security Council.
Russia, deeply isolated by Western nations since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, has previously blamed the West for the explosions that ruptured the Russian-built Nord Stream pipelines on the bed of the Baltic Sea.
But it had not previously given specifics on who it thought was responsible for the damage.
A sharp drop in pressure on both pipelines, which were previously the largest routes for Russian gas supplies to Europe, was registered on Sept. 26.
Seismologists detected explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about sabotage to one of Russia's most important energy corridors.
Reuters has not been able to immediately verify any of the conflicting claims about who was to blame for the damage.
