Russia Says Ukraine’s Western Allies Assisted in Black Sea Fleet HQ Attack

By Staff, Agencies

Russia accused Ukraine’s Western allies of helping plan and execute a missile attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet’s headquarters in the annexed Crimean Peninsula last week.

Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Western reconnaissance data, NATO country satellites, and spy planes were all used in the attack carried out by Ukraine on the fleet’s headquarters.

“There is no doubt that the attack had been planned in advance using Western intelligence means, NATO satellite assets, and reconnaissance planes, and was implemented upon the advice of [United States] and British security agencies and in close coordination with them,” Zakharova said at a briefing.

“The obvious aim of such terrorist acts is to divert attention from the failed attempts of the counteroffensive by the Ukrainian armed forces and to frighten people, to stir up panic in our society,” she said.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the US and its NATO allies of becoming involved in the war in Ukraine by supplying weapons to Kiev and providing Ukrainian forces with intelligence information and helping plan attacks on Russian facilities.

Unconfirmed news reports said Storm Shadow missiles, which have been provided to Ukraine by the United Kingdom and France, were used in the missile attack on the fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol on Friday.

Zakharova’s criticism of the West followed comments made 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 promise by Washington to supply Kiev with an unspecified number of long-range ATACMS missiles, would push NATO closer to a direct conflict with Russia.

Friday’s missile attack on the Black Sea fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol was just the latest against targets in the Crimean Peninsula.