Crisis after the downing of an American drone: “We do not want an armed conflict with Russia” | outside

The US Department of Defense said in a statement that the two ministers discussed “the recent unprofessional, dangerous and reckless behavior of the Russian Air Force in international airspace over the Black Sea.” Secretary Austin stressed that the United States will continue to fly and operate wherever international law allows.

The US military has accused the Russians of intercepting a US MQ-9 drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday morning. One of the two Russian fighter jets was going to crash into the propeller – located at the back of the drone – after which the US military had to crash the drone into the Black Sea.

The US government is considering publishing footage of the incident to provide clarification. “We have video evidence of all of this,” said Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Asked if the Russian pilots acted on purpose, he said that the interception maneuver and aggressive action were deliberate on the Russian side. According to him, it is not yet clear whether the fighter jet deliberately hit the drone.

A member of the Security Council said that Russia will try to take back the US military drone from the Black Sea. He also says the drone shows that the US is “directly involved” in the war in Ukraine. I don’t know if we can get the drone back or not, but it has to be done. “And we will definitely work on it,” Minister Nikolai Patrushev told Russian state television.

He also accused the United States, a very important partner for Ukraine, of lying about its involvement in the war. As for the drone, the Americans keep saying that they are not involved in military operations. But this is the last confirmation that they are directly involved in these activities in the war.

It is not clear whether the Americans themselves will try to remove the wreckage of the drone from the sea. According to the White House, there is a possibility that the drone will never be recovered, because it may have ended up in a very deep part of the Black Sea. A spokesman said Russia’s ability to extract information from the crashed drone was limited due to precautions.

According to the Americans, the drone was performing a routine reconnaissance flight in international airspace, and was suddenly hit by one of the fighter jets. Russia denies responsibility for the incident and says relations with the United States have reached an “ever low”. The Russian military said that “the Russian fighters did not use their weapons” and did not come into contact with the drone, which was flying “with the transponders disabled”.