UK, Russia spar at UNSC meet in Delhi over Sevastopol attack

A meeting of the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in New Delhi on Saturday saw a war of words between representatives of Moscow and London over a drone attack on the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol Port of Crimea.

Russia accused the United Kingdom of helping Ukraine in carrying out the attack with nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones. The UK rejected the allegation and was joined by other western nations in slamming Russia.

The meeting, held in Mumbai and New Delhi on Friday and Saturday respectively, was hosted by India, which currently holds its rotating chair.

Moscow’s representative in the meeting alleged that a civil engineer of the UK had a role in the “terror attack” on the civilian ships as well as warships of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol in Crimea.

The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Government later alleged that the British specialists had supervised the preparation and training of the military personnel of the 73rd Marine Special Operations Center of Ukraine. The training and preparation for the attack were carried out at Ochakov in Nikolayev region in Ukraine, alleged a spokesperson of the Russian Government.

The UK’s representative at the UNSC counter-terrorism committee’s meeting in New Delhi dismissed Moscow’s allegation, stating that Russia alone could end violence in Ukraine.

“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 UK Government tweeted. “This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the West.”

“Drones are being used currently to target critical national infrastructure and civilian targets in Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said, participating in the special meeting of the UNSC counter-terrorism committee in New Delhi.

The meeting saw India and several other nations expressing concerns over use of drones and other new and emerging technologies by terrorists.