Friday’s Ukrainian strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea was “implemented at the request of the American and British intelligence services” and coordinated with them, Russian diplomacy accused on Wednesday.
“There is not the slightest doubt that the attack was planned in advance with the use of Western intelligence assets, NATO satellite equipment, reconnaissance aircraft,” the statement said. spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova.
It was “implemented at the request of the American and British intelligence services and in close coordination with them,” she added during her weekly press conference.
Crimea, a Ukrainian region annexed by Moscow in 2014, is at the heart of the Russian military system in its offensive against Ukraine, both to supply the troops occupying southern Ukraine and to carry out strikes.
kyiv, in the midst of a counter-offensive, is trying to bring the fight to this peninsula where it has increased missile and drone attacks in recent weeks.
London and Washington have so far not reacted to the accusations from Russian diplomacy.
Ukraine claimed to have killed around thirty officers during Friday’s attack, including the commander of the Black Sea fleet, Viktor Sokolov.
But the Russian Defense Ministry released images on Tuesday showing the official participating in a video conference.
In the process, Ukrainian special operations forces announced that they were “clarifying” their information, noting that identifying the victims was difficult.
On Wednesday, the Zvezda television channel, the official media of the Russian army, for its part broadcast on Telegram a short undated video interview purporting to show Commander Viktor Sokolov, in which he praises the successes of his troops.
AFP was unable to verify the veracity or date of these images.