Russia’s defense ministry said it had recovered and analyzed the wreckage of the drone.
Moscow:
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had recovered and analyzed the wreckage of a drone used to attack ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea a day earlier, finding that the drones were equipped with Canadian-made navigation. Were.
The ministry said Ukraine carried out a 16-drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol early Saturday, and that British Navy “experts” helped coordinate it as a terrorist attack, a claim Britain denied. Is.
Russia said it had repulsed the attack, but the targeted ships were involved in ensuring a grain corridor from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Ukrainian officials have suggested that Russia itself may be responsible for the blasts, which it has used as a pretext to pull out of a UN-brokered grain deal, a move that bolsters efforts to ease the global food crisis. weakens.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the claims of both sides.
“According to the results of information obtained from the memory of the navigation receiver, it was established that the launch of the maritime drone was carried out from the coast near the city of Odessa,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said the drones had moved along a “grain corridor” security zone, before changing course to Russia’s naval base in Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The ministry said a maritime drone appeared to have launched from within the security zone of the grain corridor.
“This may indicate the initial launch of this equipment from one of the civilian ships chartered by Kyiv or its western protectorates for the export of agricultural products from the ports of Ukraine,” the defense ministry said.
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