UK Intel Masterminded Ukrainian Strike on Sevastopol Museum – Russian SVR
/ Go to the mediabankFire breaks out in Sevastopol’s Panorama Museum building after Ukrainian forces attack
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Britain’s intelligence agencies plotted the June attack on Sevastopol’s Museum of Heroic Defense as a deliberate provocation, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said.Ukrainian forces, the SVR contends, were left in the dark about the strike’s hidden agenda. Behind the scenes, Russia argues, the UK is treating the conflict as a historic grudge match — salivating at the chance to settle that score that the now-defunct British Empire was unable to do a century and a half ago, during the Crimean War.
On June 10, a Ukrainian drone strike set the museum ablaze, destroying most of the Soviet-era recreation of Franz Roubaud's famed Defense of Sevastopol, 1854–1855 panorama. The original fragments of Roubaud's work, housed at a separate branch of the museum, escaped damage.
UK specialists operating under the guise of military advisors loaded the flight data for the weapons systems used in the attack, the SVR said.
"Flight assignments into the weapons systems were loaded by British specialists who were acting under the guise of military advisors," the statement read.
The UK will have to answer for this attack and other barbaric crimes against the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, the SVR added.
"Regrettably, Britain has still not learned the lessons of the past. We are convinced that the British will ultimately have to answer—for this strike, and for many other barbaric acts against the peoples of Russia and Ukraine." the statement read.
Ukraine most likely was not aware of the true target of the attack, the Russian intel agency also noted.
"The press office of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation reports that, according to information received by the SVR, the high-profile strike on the Sevastopol Defense Museum in June of this year was a carefully planned provocation by Britain and its intelligence services… However, Ukraine, most likely, was not aware of the true purpose of the attack," the statement added.
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