Russia’s FSB says Britain’s Special Boat Service operating in Ukraine

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday that Britain’s Special Boat Service had been operating in Ukraine and helping Ukrainian forces carry out attempted operations against Russian forces.

The Ukraine war has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. President Vladimir Putin has said that NATO military personnel are present already in Ukraine. The US and key European allies have said they have no plans to send ground troops to Ukraine.

•  UK special services supervised most of the sabotage attacks against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and Crimea, a Federal Security Service officer said in a video released by the agency.

"Since the beginning of the special military operation, the Federal Security Service regularly receives information about the participation of Western special services, primarily from Britain, in the training of Ukrainian special forces. We have established the supervisory role of UK special forces in the overwhelming majority of terrorist and sabotage attacks against Russian Black Sea Fleet ships and the Crimean Peninsula," he said.

According to the officer, in addition to training saboteurs, UK representatives supply Ukrainian forces with intelligence gathering equipment, new types of explosives, including prototypes, using Ukraine as a testing ground and military personnel as expendable material for testing new weapons that are in development and tactics of their use.

"British special services do not bother to plan elaborate attacks or go into too much detail when working on operations, let alone care about the safety of Ukrainian military servicemen," the officer said.

As proof of that, he pointed to the landing of Ukrainian troops at Tendra Spit in an attempt to seize a lighthouse, which was foiled by the Federal Security Agency, also known as the FSB, and the Defense Ministry. According to the FSB, that attack "was largely designed for propaganda purposes and, even if it had succeeded, it would not have affected the situation along the engagement line, and it was not worth the effort and resources expended by Ukrainian forces."