MOSCOW-Russia Thursday summoned the UK ambassador and warned London of “dangerous consequences” after accusing Britain of helping Kyiv carry out an attack on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea last week.
“Such confrontational actions of the English carry a threat of escalation of the situation and could lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Moscow said it had delivered a “strong protest” to UK ambassador Deborah Bronnert.
It claimed British forces were training Ukrainian special services, including for “sabotage operations at sea”.
On Saturday, Russia accused the UK of helping Kyiv orchestrate a drone attack on its ships in the port of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea.
Zelensky says grain deal resumption
important for ‘whole world’
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky Thursday hailed “a significant diplomatic result for our country and the whole world” after Russia rejoined a deal to allow Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.
“Implementation of the grain export initiative continues,” he said in his daily evening address following the revival of the Turkish and UN-brokered agreement struck between Kyiv and Moscow in July.
Moscow had said on Saturday that it was temporarily pulling out of the grain deal, accusing Ukraine of misusing the safe shipping corridor to launch a drone assault on its Black Sea fleet. Russia’s defence ministry said it had now received “sufficient” guarantees from Kyiv that it would not use the maritime corridor to carry out attacks.
The call for guarantees showed “the failure of the Russian aggression”, Zelensky said in his address. After eight months of war “the Kremlin is demanding security guarantees from Ukraine”, he said.
“This shows both the failure of the Russian aggression and how strong we are when we remain united”.