According to reports from the United States military, a Russian fighter jet damaged the propeller of an American MQ-9 Reaper drone as it was flying over the Black Sea on Tuesday. As a result, the drone was forced to make an emergency landing.
On Tuesday, the Reaper drone and two Russian Su-27 aircraft were flying over international waters over the Black Sea when one of the Russian jets intentionally flew in front of the unmanned drone and dumped fuel on it several times, according to a statement released by US European Command. The incident was described in the statement as having occurred over international waters.
Following this, the aircraft struck the drone’s propeller, which prompted American forces to bring the MQ-9 drone down in international seas.
A spokesman for the Pentagon, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, said on Tuesday that the Russian aircraft had been in the area of the drone for thirty to forty minutes before the collision, which occurred shortly after seven o’clock in the morning Central European Time.
This is the first time that Russian and American military aircraft have come into direct physical contact with one another since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago.
This incident is likely to increase tensions between the two countries, as the United States has called Russia’s actions reckless, environmentally unsound, and unprofessional.
Russia Clarifies It Does Not Want ‘Confrontation
After being called to the State Department in the aftermath of the drone shootdown, the Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, stated that his country does not wish for a confrontation to occur between Russia and the United States.
Antonov, who was inside the State Department for slightly longer than a quarter of an hour, stated that Assistant Secretary Karen Donfried communicated the concerns of the United States regarding the incident and that she and Antonov exchanged our remarks on this issue because we have some differences.
In addition to this, he asserted that Russia had informed about this space that was classified as a zone for special military activity.
According to the National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby, President Joe Biden was briefed on the event by national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday morning.
Ryder’s statement, officials from the Department of Defense have not spoken explicitly to Russian authorities about the event.
Separately, Price stated that the United States government had engaged at high levels with our allies and partners in order to brief them on the incident.
He went on to say that the United States was not in a position to speak to what the Russians planned to do with the exercises, but that in the end, what really transpired was more important than the motive behind the actions.
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