Guterres calls on all parties to extend the Ukrainian grain export agreement, and Russia is withdrawing

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

Pipes at the landing facilities of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline in Lubmen, Germany.

Reuters

Yesterday, the Russian military accused the British Navy of being involved in the explosions that caused leaks last month from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, which were built to transport Russian gas to Europe, as Britain quickly denied the Russian accusation.

While the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which were attacked by Ukrainian drones, are participating in ensuring the security of the "grain corridor", the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, called on all parties to "make every possible effort" to extend the agreement. Ukraine's grain exports, but Russia announced its withdrawal from the agreement on the safe transit of grain.

In detail, the Russian Ministry of Defense said yesterday that members of the British Navy blew up the Nord Stream gas pipeline last month, accusing Britain, a prominent member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of sabotaging vital Russian infrastructure.

The Ministry of Defense did not provide any evidence for her accusation.

She said that "British specialists" from the same unit directed the Ukrainian attacks with drones against ships of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea in the Crimea region earlier yesterday, which it announced that the Russian forces had largely repulsed them, with a Russian minesweeper sustaining minor damage.

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

For its part, London yesterday denied Russian accusations that members of the British Navy had blown up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, describing them as "high-caliber false allegations".

"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," a MoD spokesman said.

"This latest, fabricated story indicates more to the (nature) of the conversations going on within the Russian government than it does to the West," he added.

Yesterday, the Russian army accused Ukraine and Britain of carrying out a drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in the Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, causing “minor damage” to one of the ships.

The Russian Defense Ministry wrote on Telegram: "The preparation for this terrorist act and the training of soldiers in the 73rd Ukrainian Center for Special Naval Operations were carried out by British specialists, based in Ochakov in the Ukrainian Mykolaiv region."

These ships were involved in protecting the Ukrainian grain export convoys, according to Moscow.

The ministry said that the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which were attacked by Ukrainian drones, were involved in ensuring the security of the "grain corridor".

"It should be noted that the ships of the Black Sea Fleet that were subjected to a terrorist attack are participating in ensuring the security of the (grain corridor), within the framework of the international initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports," the ministry said in a statement.

In a related matter, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, called on all parties to "make every effort" to extend the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports, his spokesman said, stressing at the same time the need to quickly remove "barriers" to Russian exports.

Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement that the initial term of the agreement on Ukrainian exports "is 120 days and can be automatically extended on November 19 if no party objects."

Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency reported today that Russia will stop its participation in the agreement on the safe transit of Ukrainian grain exports from three ports on the Black Sea.

This came, quoting a statement of the Ministry of Defense criticizing a "terrorist attack" on the Russian fleet in the Crimea, according to what was reported by Bloomberg News.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the Navy's minesweeper suffered minor damage from a "massive" drone attack on its fleet in the Black Sea in Crimea.

On the field level, the Ukrainian army said that Russia is not making progress with regard to its goals of the war on Ukraine, despite the implementation of a partial mobilization.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaloghny, said in Kyiv yesterday that despite the abundance of weapons and soldiers, including reservists, Russia was not able to seize new territories.

On the other hand, a study conducted by international agencies revealed that, until last August, Ukraine had witnessed the displacement of more than seven million people inside it.

On the other hand, Russia said yesterday that the rapid deployment of modernized US tactical nuclear weapons (B61) to NATO bases in Europe would lower the "minimum nuclear proliferation", and that Moscow would take this step into account in its military planning.

"We cannot ignore plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-falling bombs in Europe," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told the RIA news agency.

"The United States is working to modernize them, increase their accuracy and reduce the power of their nuclear charge, that is, they convert these weapons into weapons for use on the battlefield, and thus reduce the minimum threshold for nuclear proliferation," Grushko said.

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