Russia accuses Britain of blowing up Nord Stream pipelines, and London denies

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Saturday that personnel from the British Navy blew up two Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, an accusation that London said was false and aimed at diverting attention from Russia's military failures in Ukraine.

Russia has provided no evidence for its claim that a prominent member of NATO sabotaged Russia's two vital infrastructure facilities amid the worst crisis in relations between the West and Russia since their severe deterioration during the Cold War.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that "British specialists" from the same unit directed the Ukrainian attacks by drones on ships of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea region of Crimea earlier today, Saturday, which announced that the Russian forces repelled most of them, but that the Russian minesweeper sustained minor damage.

"According to the information available, representatives of that unit of the British Navy participated in the planning, support and execution of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 this year - with the bombing of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines."

Britain denied the accusation.

"In order to divert attention from its disastrous management of the illegal war in Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense is resorting to high-caliber false allegations," the British Ministry of Defense said.

"This made-up story indicates (the nature) of the conversations going on within the Russian government more than it indicates (what) the West is doing," she added.

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