UK navy blew up Nord Stream_ claims Russia

Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday that UK navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September_ a claim that London said was false and designed to distract from Russian military failures in Ukraine.

Russia did not give evidence for its claim that a leading NATO member had sabotaged critical Russian infrastructure amid the worst crisis in relations between the West and Russia since the depths of the Cold War.

The Russian ministry said that "British specialists" from the same unit directed Ukrainian drone attacks on ships of Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea earlier on Saturday that it said were largely repelled by Russian forces_ with minor damage to a Russian minesweeper.

"According to available information_ representatives of this unit of the British Navy took part in the planning_ provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 this year - blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines_" the ministry said.

Although_ the United Kingdom denied the claim.

"To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine_ the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale_" the British defence ministry said.

"This invented story_ says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West."

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Moscow will seek reaction from the U.N. Security Council saying on social media Moscow wanted to draw attention to "a series of terrorist attacks committed against the Russian Federation in the Black and Baltic Seas_ including the involvement of Britain in them".

Russia_ deeply isolated by Western nations following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24_ has previously blamed the West for the explosions that ruptured the Russian-built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines on the bed of the Baltic Sea.

But it had not previously given specific details of who it thinks was responsible for the damage to the pipelines_ previously the largest routes for Russian gas supplies to Europe.