Russia warns British ambassador over ‘dangerous’ drone strike on Crimea
- Moscow said Saturday’s drone attack by the British on Crimea, which Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, was ‘confrontational’
- Britain denies carrying out the attack, but makes no secret of the fact it has been helping to train Ukrainian armed forces and arming them
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it had delivered a protest to the British ambassador after summoning her over its allegation that British specialists had been involved in a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
“The démarche stressed that such confrontational actions by the British threatened to escalate the situation and could lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ambassador Deborah Bronnert arrived at the foreign ministry soon after 10.30am as a small crowd chanted anti-British slogans and held placards reading “Britain is a terrorist state”. She left after about 30 minutes. There was no immediate comment from Britain.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had said the ambassador was to be summoned over Saturday’s drone attack on Crimea, which Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The statement noted that Britain had been training Ukrainian service personnel for some time. It said this had included the training of divers in “deep-sea sabotage skills”.
“There is information that the British Navy also transferred a certain number of uncrewed underwater vehicles to the Ukrainian side,” it added.
Britain denies carrying out the attack, but makes no secret of the fact that it has been helping to train Ukrainian armed forces and arming them.