On Wednesday, White House spokesman John Kirby said U.S. officials reminded Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. that Moscow must be more careful while flying in international airspace after a U.S. military drone crashed into the Black Sea after being intercepted by Russian fighter planes.
On Tuesday, the State Department summoned Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, to voice U.S. concerns over the incident, the first since the Ukrainian war began over a year ago.
“The message that we provided to the Russian ambassador is that they need to be more careful in flying in international airspace near U.S. assets that are, again, flying in fully lawful ways, doing operations in support of our national security objectives,” Kirby said in a CNN interview.
“They need greater caution.”
Given the depth of the Black Sea, Kirby said the MQ-9 surveillance drone might never be found.
Kirby responded, “It’s gone.” “I doubt we’ll regain it. It plummeted into the deep Black Sea. We’re still considering a recovery attempt. Maybe not.”
The Pentagon said one of the Russian Su-27 planes impacted the drone’s propeller on Tuesday, rendering it unusable. At the same time, Russia’s military ministry blamed the accident on the drone’s “sharp maneuvering” and denied that its jets made contact.
Russian envoy Antonov stated the drone “deliberately and provocatively was heading towards Russian territory with transponders switched off.”
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