Global Courant
Moscow says the US and Britain played a role in planning and carrying out attacks by providing spy planes and satellite intelligence to Kiev.
Russia accused Ukraine’s Western allies last week of helping plan and carry out a missile attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Western reconnaissance data, satellites from NATO countries and spy planes were all used in Ukraine’s attack on the fleet’s headquarters.
“There is no doubt that the attack was planned in advance with the help of Western intelligence services, NATO satellite assets and reconnaissance aircraft, and was carried out on the advice of (the United States) and British security services and in close coordination with them,” Zakharova said. a briefing.
“The obvious purpose of such terrorist acts is to divert attention from the failed attempts at the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces and to frighten people and create panic in our society,” she said.
Moscow has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. and its NATO allies have become involved in the war in Ukraine by supplying weapons to Kiev, providing Ukrainian forces with intelligence information and helping to plan attacks on Russian facilities.
According to unconfirmed news reports, Storm Shadow missiles, supplied by Britain and France to Ukraine, were used in Friday’s missile attack on the fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol.
Zakharova’s criticism of the West followed comments on Tuesday by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, who said the arrival this week of US-made Abrams battle tanks in Ukraine and a pledge by Washington to provide Kiev with a indefinite number of long-range ATACMS missiles would bring NATO closer to direct conflict with Russia.
Friday’s missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol was just the latest against targets on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Crimea has served as the main hub in support of the invasion of Ukraine and has come under increasing attack from Ukrainian forces, which have vowed to put the peninsula under Kiev’s control.
Ukraine said the missile attack blew a large hole in the main building of the fleet headquarters and killed 34 officers, including fleet commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov, and injured more than 100 Russian personnel.
However, Sokolov was seen taking part in a meeting of Russian defense officials on Tuesday, which was broadcast by Russian media.
On Wednesday, Russian state television stations also showed Sokolov allegedly speaking to journalists in Sevastopol after presenting prizes to a Black Sea Fleet football team.
The Washington, DC-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW)said on Wednesday that while the Russian media did their utmost to publish “inconclusive ‘evidence’” that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet is still alive, the institute would postpone its judgment until more is known.
“ISW is not prepared at this time to make a judgment on the authenticity of the footage or the date of recording,” the spokesperson said. said the think tank.
“The Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense have remained remarkably silent on the issue and have not directly confirmed that Sokolov is still alive,” it added.
Ukraine’s Special Operation Forces posted a statement on Tuesday saying their sources had claimed Sokolov was among those killed in the missile strike and that they were trying to verify those reports after Sokolov’s video surfaced.
