Russia claims Britain behind Syria attack

Accusations: Military chiefs say they have evidence the UK had ‘direct involvement’ in chemical incident

Russia has evidence that Britain had “direct involvement” in staging the suspected chemical attack in Syria, its military chiefs have claimed.

Humanitarian volunteers were “seriously pressured” by the UK to speed up plans for a “provocation” in Eastern Ghouta, according to the federation’s defence ministry.

It comes as Russia and the US traded fresh blows as the latest round of talks at the UN Security Council.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the Government of “waiting for instructions” from President Donald Trump on how to proceed as he left open the possibility that Bashar Assad’s regime was not responsible for the attack.

According to RT, Russia’s state broadcaster, a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman accused London of directing the assault on Douma.

Major-general Igor Konashenkov is reported to have said: “The Russian Defence Ministry also has evidence that Britain had a direct involvement in arranging this provocation in Eastern Ghouta.”

He added: “We know for certain that between April 3 and April 6 the so-called White Helmets were seriously pressured from London to speed up the provocation that they were preparing.”

The Douma attack has drawn international outrage which has seen Theresa May and Mr Trump agree that the use of chemical weapons must not go unchallenged after the Prime Minister won the backing of her Cabinet for action to prevent their further use in Syria.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Russian experts have inspected the site of the alleged attack in Douma, just east of Damascus, and found no trace of chemical weapons.

He said Moscow has “irrefutable information that it was another fabrication”.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko said The White Helmets, a group of humanitarian volunteers, are supported by the British Government and are “famous for staging fake chemical attacks”.

He told a press conference: “The Syrian government had been repeatedly warning for at least a month that rebels prepared to stage a provocation with chemical weapons in this very area.”

At the UN Security Council, Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said there was “no credible confirmation” of a chemical attack and accused intelligence agencies of directing the attack.

He said: “Our specialists found no traces of toxic substance use. We have information to believe that what took place was a provocation with the participation of certain countries’ intelligence services.”

US ambassador Nikki Haley said: “Russia can complain all it wants about fake news but no-one is buying its lies and its cover-ups.”