Ukraine accuses Russia of faking ‘terror attacks’ following Crimea blasts

The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff accused Russia of “blackmail” and “invented terror attacks” on its own territory on Saturday following explosions in the occupied peninsula of Crimea on Saturday.

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“The primitiveness of Russian blackmail (can be seen) in everything. Nuclear blackmail, energy, food,” Ukraine’s top presidential staffer Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram app.

His comments were an apparent response to Russian accusations that Ukraine was behind the blasts, as a result of which Moscow said it was suspending its participation in the United Nations-backed Black Sea grain corridor.

Yermak accused Russia of “fictitious terrorist attacks on its own facilities.”

Russia said that Ukrainian forces, with the help of drones, attacked ships from the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, the biggest city in Russian-annexed Crimea, in the early hours of Saturday.

The ministry said earlier that the drone attacks on Saturday were largely repelled, with minor damage to a Russian minesweeper.

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