The Russian government on Thursday summoned the UK ambassador to Moscow, Deborah Bronnert, to convey its protest over the alleged role of the British Navy in an attack on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a «strong protest» has been conveyed to Bronnert over the «active participation of British military specialists in the training and delivery of units to Ukrainian special operations forces, including for the purpose of carrying out maritime sabotage operations.»
«Concrete facts about London’s activities have been conveyed,» he stressed, while warning that «these confrontationist actions on the part of the UK pose a threat of escalation of the situation and may lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences.»
Thus, he stressed that «these hostile provocations are inadmissible» and called on London «to put an immediate end to them». «If these acts of aggression continue, coupled with direct involvement in the conflict, the entire responsibility for the disastrous consequences and increased tensions in bilateral relations falls entirely on the United Kingdom,» he explained.
Moscow recalled that London and Kiev reached in September 2020 «an agreement to expand the training program by British instructors to Ukrainian military submariners» and said that «by the end of 2020, the parties began to implement the Black Sea Naval Training Initiative.»
The Kremlin on Tuesday accused the UK authorities of coordinating and perpetrating the September sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as of being linked to an attack on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, both extremes denied by the British government.
Moscow alluded to the attack in the Black Sea as an argument to temporarily suspend the agreement signed to export grain from Ukraine, one of the few rapprochements between the parties since Putin launched the military offensive on February 24 and which was resumed on Wednesday.
