On the evening of Tuesday, March 14, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet rammed an American Reaper drone over the Black Sea. “Our MQ-9 drone was performing routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and rammed by a Russian aircraft, resulting in the crash and loss of the MQ-9”said General James Hecker, commander of the American air forces in Europe.
Since the start of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, this is the first time that a member country of NATO and support of Ukraine has admitted losing equipment operated by itself in this region described as highly flammable. .
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The Black Sea airspace is an area of regular interaction between drones and aircraft from NATO countries and the Russian armed forces. According to General Hecker, this is a dangerous and unprofessional act on the part of the Russians and reminded Russia that ” U.S. and allied drones will continue to operate in international airspace.”
Tensions between Washington and Moscow
The United States accused the Russian air force of having intercepted and rammed an American drone. The act is called thoughtless” by John Kirby, a White House spokesman. As a reaction, the US State Department summoned Anatoly Antanov, the Russian ambassador to the United States. For her part, the Ambassador of the United States, Lynne Tracy, sent a message to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We are in direct contact with the Russians, at the level of senior officials, in order to convey to them our strong objection to this interception”US Foreign Affairs spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
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Moscow has denied these accusations but admits that two of its fighters intercepted a detected American drone ” in the area of the Crimean peninsula ». The army defended itself by saying that ” Russian fighters did not use their armaments » and that they did not come into contact with the drone which was flying “with transponders switched off” and who violated “the area of the provisional regime for the use of airspace established to carry out the special military operation”. This special operation is the term used by Russia to refer to its invasion of Ukraine.
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This Wednesday, March 15, Moscow is calling on Washington to end the flights ” hostiles of drones. Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov considers the presence of American drones in this area to be a threat.
Towards an extension of the conflict?
Russia also announces that it wants to recover the wreckage of the American drone. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to reach it or not, but we have to try. And we will necessarily take care of it, and I hope of course successfully, ” Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told Russian television.
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Ukraine accuses Russia of having acted deliberately to prove that it was ready to expand the conflict.
“The incident with the American MQ-9 Reaper drone caused by Russia in the Black Sea is a signal from (Vladimir) Putin that he is ready to expand the area of the conflict and involve other parties in it”, declared on Twitter the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Oleksiï Danilov. According to him, the Russians use the “all-out tactic” consists in “always up the ante”.
“This dangerous episode comes against a backdrop of aggressive, risky and dangerous actions by Russian pilots in international airspace”says Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense of the United States at the start of a meeting of countries supporting Ukraine.
