As global attention remains focused on the Israel-Iran conflict, a war in another part of the world is taking a dangerous turn. Russia has accused Ukraine of planning a sabotage in the Baltic against the US Navy in collusion with the UK spy agency to frame Moscow.

Russia’s foreign intelligence agency (SVR) said in a statement on June 16 that the Ukrainian government and European security services are planning several fresh anti-Russian provocations amid escalating battlefield issues, state news agency TASS reported. 

“According to the information coming to the SVR, amid growing problems for Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) on the front lines and the widespread moral exhaustion among Ukrainian people in the rear, the Zelensky regime is intending to escalate the subversive and terrorist activity against Russia,” the SVR press bureau said in a statement. 

It further added, ”The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (GUR MO) have been instructed to collaborate closely with European intelligence services to carry out bloody provocation.”

The report also alleged that the Ukrainian special services have developed the strongest collaboration with British intelligence, the M16.

One of the many scenarios of carrying out anti-Russia provocation, according to the agency, is staging a Russian torpedo attack against a US Navy ship.

The messaging indicates that this attack could be conducted using the torpedos produced by Russia or the former Soviet Union, which have been transferred from Ukraine to their British counterparts.

It alleges that as per the plan hatched by the two sides, one of the torpedoes would fail and be shown to the public as proof of Russia’s “malicious activity,” while the others would explode at a “safe distance” from the ship. Additionally, the SVR states that the Ukrainian law enforcement is now ready to execute the insidious plot.

The SVR lists another Ukrainian-UK scenario that likely envisages “accidental fishing out of Russian-made anchor mines in the Baltic Sea, allegedly planted for sabotage on the international sea lane, with the help of accomplices from Northern European countries.”

Earlier, Russia alleged that Ukraine was responsible for the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which ran from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

In a separate incident, Russia was accused of cutting Baltic undersea cables, including one running between Finland and Germany, and another going between Sweden and Lithuania. It has categorically denied its involvement in the incident and claimed the reports were aimed at damaging Russia’s reputation and interests.

“Subversive actions tend to be carried out according to the same pattern. The British side is responsible for developing and providing operational support for acts of sabotage, while the staff of the SBU or GUR MO and their agents often act as direct penetrators. This mechanism was used, for example, to organize recent terrorist attacks on the railway in the Bryansk and Kursk regions, as well as the strikes on airfields of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) on June 1 of this year,” SVR said.

Russia has alleged that the main goals of these subversive actions are to escalate the Ukrainian conflict, disrupt the US-Russian negotiation process, and convince the White House to continue providing Kyiv with full-scale military support.

The Russian agency did not support its claims with credible evidence, and the Ukrainian government has yet to acknowledge them at the time of writing this report.

The allegations come as peace has once again become elusive between the two countries following Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb, where several bases and strategic bombers were struck deep inside Russian territory. Ukraine also hit two Russian regions that lie close to the Ukrainian border, including the Bryansk Oblast and Kursk.

Following these attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been courted by the US to negotiate a ceasefire, said that Ukraine was gradually turning into a terrorist organisation and its allies are turning into “accomplices of terrorists.”

He claimed that the government has started acting in this way “against the backdrop of huge losses, retreating along the entire line of combat contact, trying to intimidate Russia.”

Russia has intensified its attacks in recent times, particularly after the Ukrainian attack, leading to mounting losses for Kyiv’s forces. President Zelenskyy has been calling for the world to chastise Putin and keep pressure on Russia to end the war.

Russia Tells Ukraine To Destroy Western Weapons 

Despite grave mistrust and prevailing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the two sides have regularly exchanged prisoners of war, and the possibility of a ceasefire remains on the table.

However, Russia is likely to put forward another condition.

In a June 16 interview with the state-run daily Izvestia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko stated that Moscow will demand that any ceasefire agreement include Ukraine dismantling and destroying all weapons given by the West.

“All these surpluses must be destroyed. All international algorithms are known. They must be reduced, disposed of, and guaranteed,” Grushko said.

Grushko warned that weapons could wind up on illegal markets, arguing that Western weapons aid poses a threat to both Russia as well as to Europe.

“It’s crazy how reckless some politicians are, still flooding the market with weapons,” he said. Russia has alleged that Ukraine has trafficked the arms acquired from its partners in NATO—a claim vehemently denied by Kyiv.

Ukrainian media reported that the comments are consistent with Moscow’s expanding list of maximalist demands made in its so-called “peace memorandum” during June 2 meetings with Ukraine in Istanbul.

Russia has also said that Ukraine fully withdraw and demobilize its troops and acknowledge Russia’s annexation of Crimea and four partially occupied regions: Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk.

While Russia has positioned itself as being in favour of the ceasefire, Ukraine states that the preconditions set by Moscow are not acceptable, as they would essentially forbid Ukraine from joining military alliances like NATO, prohibit the redeployment of its armed forces, and halt any intelligence cooperation and military assistance from the West.

Moscow’s demands have been rejected by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who claims that the Russian team acknowledged in Istanbul that their “memorandum” is an ultimatum that Ukraine cannot accept.

“They even told our delegation: we know that our memorandum is an ultimatum, and you will not accept it,” the Ukrainian President disclosed in an interview with the Hungarian publication Valasz Online on June 10.

Against that backdrop, and with the terms being unfavourable, Russia believes that Ukraine may escalate the conflict by carrying out false operations to involve the US and NATO in the war.