Russia seeks UN Security Council meeting on Nord Stream blasts

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has requested a new meeting of the U.N. Security Council for July 11 to discuss last September's explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a senior Russian diplomat at the United Nations said on Saturday.

Russia has unsuccessfully demanded access to investigations by Sweden and other countries into the blasts, which severely damaged the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea.

"We requested a new open meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Nord Stream blasts for July 11," Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, said on the Telegram messaging platform.

He also said Russia would invite "a couple of interesting impartial speakers" to the meeting.

Russia failed in March to get the U.N. Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry.

Moscow has said the West was behind the blasts. Western governments have denied involvement, as has Ukraine, which is fighting Russian forces on its territory.

The pipeline blasts occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. Sweden, Denmark and Germany have said that their own separate investigations were still active and Russia had been informed.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Gareth Jones)