KYIV: Russia has accused Western allies of Ukraine in assisting a plan to conduct last week’s missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters located in the annexed Crimean Peninsula, Western media reported on Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing that the attack had been planned earlier using Western intelligence tools, NATO satellites and reconnaissance aircrafts.
Russia says American, British security agencies assisted the attack
She noted that the attack was carried out on the advice of American and British security agencies and in close coordination with Ukraine.
Russia has been claiming that the US and its NATO allies were involved in the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine and providing it with intelligence information and assisting attacks on Russian installations.
Earlier Russian media reported that Storm Shadow missiles given to Ukraine by the UK and France were used in the assault on the headquarters.
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The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been a frequent target since war started between Russian and Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine said the strike that created a large hole in headquarters main building had injured 105 people. However, such claims couldn’t be verified independently.
Earlier Ukraine said that it had killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov and thirty-four officers in an attack on the fleet’s naval headquarters in the Crimean Peninsula.
The attack gave a major blow to Moscow, that has suffered a wave of strikes on the strategically important port of Sevastopol in recent months. Crimea is an important military and logistics hub for Moscow’s security apparatus.
