The Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed that British special forces were involved in a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.
Andrei Kelin told Sky News: “We know that perfectly well [the] participation of British specialists in [the] training, preparation and execution of violence against Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know it’s been done.”
He claimed that evidence had been handed over to the British ambassador and would “be made public very soon”.
Kelin added: “This is actually a warning that Britain is too deep in this conflict. It means the situation is getting more and more dangerous.”
He also denied that Moscow was using nuclear weapons in the conflict. Asked if Moscow would use a so-called tactical nuclear weapon, he said: “No. The world has every guarantee that Russia will not use [a] tactical nuclear weapon [the] Ukraine conflict”.
Russia, without providing evidence, has repeatedly blamed Britain for Saturday’s audacious attack, in which a swarm of drones attacked Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Russian officials have said a Royal Navy unit led the operations from the southern Ukrainian port of Otsakhiv. The UK has dismissed it as “false claims on an epic scale”.
The Kremlin has also accused the Royal Navy of “directing and coordinating” the attacks on the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines in September. Britain has said Moscow is making the accusations to play down its failed military campaign in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the UN nuclear watchdog said it had found no signs of undeclared nuclear activity at three sites in Ukraine it inspected at Kyiv’s request, in response to Russian allegations that working on a “dirty bomb”.
“Our technical and scientific assessment of the results we have so far showed no indication of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three sites,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said, adding that they would be analyzed environmental samples taken, reports Reuters.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia knew “of an incident with the so-called ‘dirty bomb’ that was being prepared,” and that Russia knew “where, in general, it was being prepared “.
He gave no evidence of the alleged plot, which he said included the possibility of a device being loaded onto a Tochka-U or other tactical missile, detonated and then “blamed on Russia.” Kyiv has flatly denied the accusations.
Dirty bombs use conventional explosives such as dynamite placed next to radioactive material, which is then thrown outward by the force of the explosion.
In southern Ukraine, a Russian-installed occupation official said Moscow was likely to withdraw its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper River, signaling a major withdrawal that, if confirmed, would be a tipping point important turning point in the war.
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Still, Ukrainian officials and Western analysts remained wary of signs that Russia was leaving the area, and there was silence from senior officials in Moscow about what would be one of Russia’s most humiliating retreats yet.
Kyiv said it was still fighting in the area and was suspicious that Moscow might be running a trap by faking a withdrawal.
“Most likely, our units, our soldiers, will march to the left [eastern] bank,” Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civil administrator of the Kherson region, said in an interview with Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet.
The area includes the city of Kherson, capital of the region of the same name, and the only major city that Russia has captured intact since its invasion in February. It also includes one side of a huge dam across the Dnieper, which controls the supply of water to irrigate Crimea, the peninsula that Russia has occupied since 2014.
Russia had previously vehemently denied that its forces planned to withdraw from the area, one of the biggest new conquests that Putin claimed to have annexed from Russia in late September.
Speculation arose on Thursday about whether Russia was pulling out, after photographs circulated on the Internet showing the main administrative building in the city of Kherson with the Russian flag no longer flying there. Ukraine said the images could be Russian disinformation.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, said it could be a Russian trap. “This could be a manifestation of a particular provocation, in order to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they prepare for street battles,” he said in televised remarks.
“We continue to fight, also in the direction of Kherson, despite the fact that the enemy is trying to convince us that he is leaving the settlements and creating the effect of a total evacuation.”