Danish Defense shows the gas leaking at Nord Stream 2 seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor on Bornholm, Denmark, on Sept. 27. Photo: Danish Defence/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Russia accused British navy personnel of directing Ukrainian drone attacks on ships in Crimea on Saturday and of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, per Reuters.
Driving the news: The U.K. has denied the allegations, saying the false claims are intended to distract from Russian military failures in Ukraine.
- Ukraine has not commented on the alleged drone attacks.
Meanwhile, Russia added Saturday that as a result of the alleged attack on its Black Sea fleet, it would suspend its participation in an agreement to export grain from Ukrainian ports, a deal intended to alleviate a global food crisis, the New York Times reports.
What they're saying: "To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale," U.K.'s Defense Ministry said in a tweet Saturday.
- "This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the west."
The big picture: Russia's government has now directly accused a NATO member of being involved in an attack on critical Russian infrastructure amid already sour tensions with the West.
Flashback: Both NATO and the European Union said the mysterious leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines last month were a deliberate act of sabotage.
- Neither organization named a suspected culprit.
- Former CIA director John Brennan told CNN at the time that he believed the leaks were a result of sabotage, most likely by Russia.
What's next: Russia's Foreign Ministry said that it would raise the issues of what it labeled "terrorist attacks" in Crimea and the Nord Stream gas pipelines at the United Nations Security Council, per CNN.