Moscow says ships protecting grain exports targeted by Ukrainian drones

The Russian Defense Ministry accused the Ukrainian military on Saturday of carrying out a large scale drone attack on Russian ships that were involved in protecting convoys exporting Ukrainian grain. As it said that the attack was thwarted, it also blamed the United Kingdom of assisting Ukraine military in the attack.

"Today at 04:20 am, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack on ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships," the ministry said, claiming that "all air targets were destroyed."

While London denied involvement, Kyiv has not immediately commented.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Governor of Sevastopol, stated that the Ukrainian attack was the most massive offensive since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"Today we witnessed the most massive attack by UAVs and remote-controlled surface drones in the waters of the Sevastopol Bay in the course [of the special military operation]," Razvozhaev said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also claimed that British military officers were involved in the operation carried out by Ukraine, as it said on Telegram:

"The preparation of this terrorist act and the training of military personnel of the 73rd Ukrainian special maritime operations center were carried out by British specialists based in Ochakov, Mykolaiv region of Ukraine."

In response, the Biritsh Ministry of Defence said:

"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. This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the west."