Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square at night in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. (Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images) The U.K.
government made the claim based on an intelligence assessment, without providing evidence to back it up. It comes amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia’s designs on Ukraine and each side's increasing accusations that the other is planning provocations."The disinformation spread by the British Foreign Office is more evidence that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, who are escalating tensions around Ukraine," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging app Sunday. "We call on the British Foreign Office to stop provocative activities, stop spreading nonsense."British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the information "shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking."Truss urged Russia to "deescalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy," and reiterated Britain’s view that "any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs."Britain has sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine as part of efforts to bolster its defenses against a potential Russian attack.Mark Galeotti, who has written expensively on Russian security services, told The Associated Press "I can't help but be skeptical" about the British claim."This is one of those situations where it is hard to know whether what we're facing is a genuine threat, a misunderstanding of the inevitable overtures that were being made to various Ukrainian figures by Russians or ‘strategic.