The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation summoned the diplomat on Thursday and expressed its disagreement and protest against the training of Ukrainian servicemen by specialists of the Royal Navy with the aim of carrying out terrorist actions in the Black Sea.

At the same time, the ambassador was given concrete data on these activities by London and pointed out that such confrontational actions ‘carry the threat of escalation of the situation and may have unpredictable and dangerous consequences,’ the Foreign Ministry noted.

In the event that such acts of aggression, fraught with direct involvement in the conflict all responsibility for their harmful consequences and increased tension in relations between our states will fall entirely on the British side, the Foreign Ministry pointed out.

In particular, the UK trained mine-sweeping crews for Ukraine and also transferred a certain number of unmanned underwater vehicles to Kiev.

The statement also points to an agreement reached in 2020 between London and Kiev with a view to expanding the British instructor training program for Ukrainian military divers.

The strengthening of British-Ukrainian naval cooperation is carried out within the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine program, which includes the preparation of underwater saboteurs for operations in the waters of the Black and Azov seas, the foreign ministry noted.

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