Spying on the United States is one of the causes of the incident between the Russian air force and an American drone in the Black Sea, accused Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday, assuring that Russia “will now react proportionally to any provocation.”
The Russian Minister of Defense affirmed this Wednesday during a call with his American counterpart that the “reinforcement” of the espionage operations carried out by the United States was one of the causes of the incident between the Russian aviation and an American drone in the Black Sea.
“The causes of the incident are the non-observance by the United States of the restricted flight zone announced by Russia and established as a result of the conduct of the special military operation (in Ukraine), as well as the reinforcement intelligence activities against the interests of Russia,” Sergei Shoigu said in a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.
“Flights of strategic American drones off the Crimea are provocative in nature, which creates the conditions for an escalation in the Black Sea”, continues this press release published after the call between Sergei Shoigu and Lloyd Austin.
“An escalation in the Black Sea”
“Russia does not want such a development of events, but it will now react proportionally to any provocation”, adds the ministry, considering that “the main nuclear powers must act in the most responsible way possible, in particular by keeping channels of open military communication to discuss any crisis situation”.
In a separate statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Chief of Staff, Valery Gerasimov, had also spoken by telephone on Wednesday with his American counterpart, Mark Milley, without providing further details.
The Reaper MQ-9 fell Tuesday in international waters after being hit, according to Washington, by a Russian fighter. Moscow admits the interception of the device by its fighter jets but denies any contact that would have led to the crash.
